Quarantine disregarded An Austrian woman is sentenced because her neighbor died of coronavirus
During the pandemic, millions of people died worldwide as a result of the coronavirus. In Austria, a single woman was now on trial for infecting another person.
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- In a coronavirus trial in Austria, a woman has been convicted of disregarding her quarantine.
- The court considered it proven that she had infected her neighbor who had cancer. The man died as a result.
- An expert had identified almost identical virus strains in the woman and her neighbor.
An Austrian court has held a woman responsible for the death of her neighbor from coronavirus. The district court in Klagenfurt considered it proven that the 54-year-old defendant had infected the man with cancer in December 2021. She was sentenced to a suspended sentence of four months for gross negligence manslaughter.
In addition, the woman must pay a fine totaling 800 euros (around 750 francs). The verdict is not yet final.
The neighbor died of pneumonia as a result of a corona infection. An expert determined by means of genetic analysis that the virus of the deceased and the virus of the woman matched "almost 100 percent". Such a high degree of coverage is very rare because coronaviruses change rapidly, the expert explained.
No quarantine despite a positive test
"I am personally sorry for you - I believe that something like this has probably happened hundreds of times," the judge said to the defendant in her reasoning. "But you have the misfortune that an expert has established with a probability bordering on certainty that it was an infection that came from you." That was enough for a guilty verdict, the judge explained.
In July 2023, the woman had already been sentenced to a suspended sentence of three months for intentional endangerment by communicable diseases. Despite testing positive for coronavirus in December 2021, she had disregarded her mandatory quarantine, left her home and talked to people without wearing a mask. The neighbor's death has now been heard in a separate trial.
According to his family, the neighbor had met the woman suffering from coronavirus in the hallway. She said that she was too ill to even get out of bed at the time. From her point of view, she did not have corona, but bronchitis, "like I have every year in winter", she said in court.
