Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz held a video conference with the leaders of several countries to share ideas on combating the coronavirus pandemic. Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Greece participated in the conference. The conference focused on strategies for rebooting the countries’ economies while still keeping the virus under control. Kurtz said that researchers from each of the countries in the group would collaborate on working on a possible vaccine and other treatments. The goal was to avoid those countries becoming dependent on global superpowers in crisis response. Following a strict lockdown that began in mid-March, Austria has been easing social and business restrictions over the last two weeks. The latest move in this direction was announced for Friday, with the gradual reopening of schools planned from May 4 onwards.
