Country: Austria

All owners of nursing homes report daily Corona statistics to the province of Styria. These reports enable the Province of Styria to identify any hotspots of corona cases in nursing homes at an early stage. Corona cases are also tracked for the staff of the care providers in order to detect any upcoming staff shortage at an early stage.

“Hack the crisis“ Austria is a virtual hackathon organized by volunteers of the Austrian Startups Community with support of the corporate and public sector. Its aim is to cooperatively develop new solutions to counter challenges posed by the Corona crisis.

The Austrian government has created a security platform onlinesicherheit.gv.at that regularly publishes reports and news articles on the topic of Corona virus.

The Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance has introduced a number of measures and solutions addressing COVID-19 related problems for businesses, all of which are detailed on a single online webpage.

The transparency portal provides a central overview of funding opportunities for citizens and companies in connection with the management of the COVID-19 crisis as well as a transparent presentation of the amount of support already paid out. On request, electronic forms can be used to apply for the appropriate funding directly and without media breaks. In addition, all support services granted should be recorded in the transparency database on a personal basis. On the one hand, this enables an…

The new information chatbot "Mona" on the Service Platform for Business (USP) answers important company-relevant questions: short-time work, hardship funds and other initiatives are quickly and easily explained. The new chatbot "Mona"  is intended to cover all relevant questions for companies on the subject of the corona crisis and the economy. The service of the Federal Ministry for Digitization and Business Location (BMDW) is available online on the USP website and can also be used on…

The Austrian Business Service (AWS) website has detailed various initiatives about the Austrian government's responses for businesses, and used youtube videos to help better explain and communicate particular initiatives.

The Austrian Government has created a hardship fund as a "safety net for entrepreneurs". This fund provides for EUR 2 billion to provide rapid assistance for acute financial distress in the Corona crisis. Phase 1 is aimed at supporting self-employed persons suffering from huge falls in turnover. The hardship fund provides a grant that does not have to be repaid later. An online service was established to enable quick processing of applications and avoid media brakes.

Austria is currently in an exceptional situation. A comprehensive package of measures to combat the spread of the corona virus has been put in place. A supporting measure is the proclamation of the extraordinary civil service. In order to be able to perform extraordinary community service, these requirements must be met: Civil service obligation: only for male Austrian citizens under the age of 50 Ordinary community service must be completed. Full time (at least around 40 hours a week,…

The groceries assistants – labour power for the food chain. In order to counteract the labour shortage in the food industry and during the harvest, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Tourism and Regions (BMLRT) established a central platform for the placement of workers. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Regions and Tourism therefore provides a central platform for the registration of potential workers in the food chain. This also enables affected companies in the food chain to register…