Also eleven teachers

Norovirus in Salzburg: 71 children have already fallen ill

The norovirus continues to rage in an elementary school in Salzburg-Parsch. Now 71 children and eleven teachers are already infected. According to the city of Salzburg, the infections will continue over the weekend.

Due to a sudden gastrointestinal infection, 40 children and five teachers at an elementary school in the Salzburg district of Parsch stayed at home on Thursday. New cases were added on Friday.

Eleven of the 19 teachers and 71 of the 234 children have now fallen ill. The area disinfections that began yesterday will continue over the weekend, according to the city of Salzburg.

The norovirus can remain on surfaces for days to weeks, said the head of the city's health department, Rainer Pusch. "Now that half the school is effectively gone, the cleaning staff can continue to disinfect surfaces all the more intensively."

Pusch hopes that the weekend will take the pressure off the spread. In any case, once the symptoms have subsided - severe diarrhea and vomiting and often also abdominal and muscle pain, mild fever and headaches - sick people should stay at home for at least two days because they are still contagious for that long.