(Credit: © Peter M. Mayr)

The Theater an der Wien has announced that it will remain closed until further notice.

According to an official statement on the company’s website, all the future performances in the 2020-21 season are uncertain at this moment due to the Austrian government’s COVID-19 regulations.

The epidemiological situation in Austria is complicated due to the presence of a highly aggressive South African B.1.351 variant of the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus. The variant has been battering the state of Tyrol as of late, forcing the European Commission to send additional 100,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COMIRNATY® COVID-19 vaccine to Austria in order to combat the new infection wave. The number of active cases of the South African variant has since been reduced from 200 to 60.

Due to hospital overload, Health Minister Rudolf Anschober has announced that the Austrian government has ordered the City of Vienna, Niederösterreich and Burgenland to enter full lockdown during Easter holidays. The seven-day incidence in Vienna currently stands at 298.4.