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

Lower Austria and Burgenland – the other states to have put in place a stricter lockdown over Easter – will await further developments before deciding whether to extend their lockdown past April 6th. 

The move comes after experts said they had doubts  whether the closure of shops and lockdown over Easter would be enough to stop intensive care units becoming overloaded, broadcaster ORF reports. 

Lower Austria will bring in extra measures in schools and kindergartens to test contact people and put more classes into quarantine in cases of coronavirus. 

Shops and hairdressers to close

EXPLAINED: What is allowed in eastern Austria during the hard lockdown over Easter

 Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland’s  lockdown means that from Thursday April 1st shops will be closed, with the exception of grocery stores, pet food stores, pharmacies, drug stores and tobacconists.

Supermarkets will only be able to sell food, but not non-essential items such as toys.

Hairdressers, museums and zoos will also close again, and exit restrictions will be put in place, meaning people may only leave the house or apartment for specific reasons: to go shopping,  to exercise animals or for “physical and mental relaxation”.

Crossing state borders of the eastern region to go shopping will not be allowed, and schools will switch to distance learning until April 9th.