VIENNA, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Austria has been spared an influenza wave this year, Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said on Friday.
"This year, for the first time in decades, there have been no flu cases in Austria," Anschober said in a broadcast published by the Austrian Press Agency (APA).
The protective measures against the spread of the coronavirus "also work against the flu and other pathogens that cause flu-like infections," he said.
The flu has cost thousands of lives annually over the past decades in the Alpine country. The worst, recalled the minister, was the 2016-2017 flu season with 4,400 influenza-related deaths.
The absence of a flu epidemic is evident across Europe, said Anschober, adding that it is still too early for a final all-clear.
He assumed that a flu wave, if it does come, will in any case be much milder than in previous years. Enditem
