Austria reports 6 cases of COVID-19 reinfection

Six people who contracted but recovered from COVID-19 have been reinfected with a coronavirus variant that was first identified in South Africa, according to the health authority of a western state of Austria, reported Xinhua.

These people tested positive for a second time between the beginning of January and mid-February and the mutation has been detected in all of them, said Elmar Rizzoli, head of the Tyrolean Coronavirus task force on Wednesday.

"According to the information currently available, all six cases of the second infection showed a mild course," he added.

The number of mutation cases of the variant first identified in South Africa has increased to 343 in the Alpine state, with 137 active ones, according to the Tyrolean Coronavirus task force.

Austria has tightened COVID-19 restrictive measures for almost all of Tyrol to curb the spread of the variant since last Friday, with adults having to present a negative coronavirus test result no older than 48 hours before they can leave the state.

Austria's Minister of Health Rudolf Anschober Tuesday declared the weeks until Easter "the most difficult phase of the pandemic," as the number of coronavirus mutations is increasing sharply.

"As soon as the mutations, with their increased risk of infection, become dominant -- we will see this in the first regions in eastern Austria in the next two weeks -- this will lead to an increase in the number of new infections," said the minister.