VIENNA: Austria has more than 10,000 confirmed cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, a running total from the health ministry showed on Tuesday afternoon.
As of 1600 GMT the number of cases stood at 10,088, with 128 deaths recorded among those who contracted the virus.
More than 1,000 Covid-19 patients have been admitted to hospital, with around 200 in intensive care.
Initial data about the fatalities shows an average age of 80, according to Martin Sprenger, an advisor to the government’s coronavirus taskforce.
Only four of those who died were under 60, the medical doctor told Oe1 public radio.
The hardest-hit region is the Alpine Tyrol province in the west of the country, which has reported 2,357 cases.
Tyrol and some parts of neighbouring regions have been put under quarantine.
The provinces of Upper and Lower Austria each have more than 1,600 cases while the capital Vienna has just over 1,400.
Throughout the country, a wide-ranging lockdown has been in place for two weeks and the government has dampened any hopes that the measures could be relaxed anytime soon.
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz warned Austrians on Monday that they were currently in the “calm before the storm” and that the country was still in the early stages of a “marathon” of combatting the virus. - AFP