VIENNA, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Austria reported its biggest daily increase of COVID-19 cases as a further 1,958 people tested positive in the past 24 hours, the Minister of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection Rudi Anschober said on Wednesday at a press conference.

The test positivity rate is increasing sharply and stands "too high" at 9 percent, said the minister.

In the Alpine country, nearly two million COVID-19 tests have been carried out since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to the Ministry of Health.

So far, there have been 69,778 positive test results in Austria. As of Wednesday morning, 925 people had died and 52,617 had recovered from COVID-19.

There are currently 960 people in hospital for coronavirus treatment, 147 of them in intensive care units.

In order to curb the coronavirus and prevent a second lockdown, the government introduced tightened measures including a limit of indoor gatherings to six people and allowing states to impose regional restrictions such as curfews. These measures will come into effect from Friday and apply for at least four weeks.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, countries including France, China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States are racing to find a vaccine.

According to the website of the World Health Organization, as of Oct. 19, there were 198 COVID-19 candidate vaccines being developed worldwide, and 44 of them were in clinical trials. Enditem

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