Please note: this has since been extended again. Click here for more information. 

The extension of the lockdown was announced by Lower Austrian Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner on Wednesday, Wiener Zeitung reports, after Austria’s Ministry of Health was unable to introduce a nationwide strategy for all federal states and the proposal to introduce retail tests was blocked.

She said in the meantime the situation in the eastern states had become “critical”.  

READ MORE: Vienna’s lockdown to be extended to April 11th

Burgenland Governor Hans Peter Doskozil also called on the federal and state governments to meet and come up with a unified strategy for the coronavirus pandemic, broadcaster ORF reports. 

The Lower Austrian governor said “extensive testing” was the most efficient means in the fight against the pandemic, and had already worked in the Lower Austrian districts of Neunkirchen, Wiener Neustadt Land and in the city of Wiener Neustadt.

Now in Lower Austria, Waidhofen ad Ybbs and the Scheibbs district are facing exit restrictions as they have had a seven-day incidence above 400 for almost a week, the Wiener Zeitung newspaper reports. The Melk district is also almost at the level to trigger restrictions at 393.9.

Generally, once an area has a seven day incidence of 400 for a week, quarantine measures are taken and a negative coronavirus test is needed to leave.