After many long, difficult months, Austria is starting to see a fall in the number of people diagnosed with coronavirus and relief for its intensive care units. 

The seven-day incidence, or the number of infections per 100,000 people in Austria has fallen below 100 for the first time in almost seven months and stood at 97.7 on Monday.

It was last in double digits on October 17th. In addition, fewer than 1,000 new infections with the coronavirus were reported on Monday for the first time in seven months.

Just 820 new cases have been added since Sunday, the lowest number since October, when there was significantly less testing in Austria. 

Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein said today the number of beds occupied by coronavirus patients in hospitals has decreased from 1,400 at the peak of the crisis to 800 throughout Austria.

However, the intensive care bed occupancy in Vienna is still at a high level, with 31 percent of the city’s intensive care beds being used for coronavirus patients according to the AGES database.

This means Vienna is just below the “critical level”, which is defined as more than a third of intensive care beds being occupied by people suffering from Covid 19.

Above the threshold of 33 percent of beds, coronavirus patients begin to “compete” with other intensive care patients.