First glimpses at life after strict contact restrictions

In Austria we’ve had contact restrictions since 16 March. Most stores were closed down, no schools, no university, no fitness studios, and at first not even restaurants were you could get food for take-away. You were also only allowed to enter public spaces for specific reasons like getting to work or doing the groceries.

Since today (1 May) most of these restrictions have been lifted. We can now move freely again, most shops will open tomorrow again (today is a national holiday), but we will have to wear masks pretty much all the time and also still stay at least 1m away from anybody else we are not living together with. DerStandard has a nice summary of all the changes that are now in effect. For now these new rules and laws are set to expire at 1 June but if the reproduction factor goes up again, I’m pretty sure that this new freedom will have to be restricted again even before the end of the month.

That being said, starting in about two weeks most restaurants are also scheduled to open up again and allow guests in. I’m not yet sure how weird that all will be but there is some normalcy returning πŸ™‚