Austria will not adopt tighter coronavirus measures despite rising case numbers, the government said on Thursday. 

The country’s Coronavirus Task Force recommended that the situation be “monitored and evaluated” but said that the relaxation of lockdown measures on the 22nd of July would remain in place. 

These included a nationwide relaxation of mask rules in shops, with all states following this other than Vienna. 

UPDATED: Austria to tighten Covid measures from Thursday

Austria as a whole recorded 452 new infections on Thursday, which is the highest recorded in a 24-hour period since May 29th, when 498 cases were recorded nationwide. 

One person died on Thursday morning, bringing the total fatality count to 10,730.

One of the major reasons stricter measures were not ordered by the government was due to low hospitalisation rates. 

There are currently 102 people in hospital in Austria for Covid, with 26 of those in intensive care. 

A major reason for this is that younger people, some of whom have not yet had the chance to be vaccinated, are getting infected but are not getting as significant symptoms. 

The impact has varied depending on the state. Only Burgenland currently has stable numbers of infections (2), with infections increasing in each of the other federal states. 

READ MORE: What is Austria’s new five-colour Covid traffic light system?

On Austria’s traffic light system, Salzburg has already crossed into the red while Vienna, Tyrol and Vorarlberg are coloured orange as having a middle level of risk. 

More than five million people have been vaccinated in Austria at least once against the virus (5,183,408), which works out to be 58 percent of the population. 

Over four million (4,180,026) have been fully immunised, which is 47 percent of the population.