Please be a responsible person. If you feel sick in any ways please stay at home. If you suspect that you're having symptoms of COVID-19 before or after joining ESN events or services or you had contact with a COVID-19 positive tested person within close proximity in time please inform us! Then follow the further steps which are communicated by the Austrian health hotline 1450! Suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 and category contacts I and II at TU Graz must be reported! It's very likely this also applies to all other Graz universities, please check this on your own responsibility and out of respect for your fellow human beings!
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NOTE: Our government advises to reduce all physical social interactions to a minimum. For further information, please check out this page.

We have been informed that there was an increasing number of incoming students tested positive for COVID-19 recently.

We also have to note, unfortunately, that some still do not understand that, given the current situation, this is an extremely unwise time for parties and meetings.

Furthermore, some of these events are repeatedly associated with ESN Graz from many sides - at this point we would therefore like to point out once again unequivocally that these are not events organised by us.

Besides general confusion, this is also a problem insofar as the terms "ESN" and also "Erasmus" are registered trademarks and may not be used without explicit permission.

Events, and this includes parties organised by ESN Graz, are always published on our own website and advertised in our official communication channels. We cannot exclude the possibility that organisations or persons unilaterally, without any agreement or clarification, associate ESN or the Erasmus programme. In most cases, these act in their own interest and, unfortunately, also often with tricks to deceive potential visitors, to gain their attention and to get them to come and stay as a guest.

Apart from these facts, people are being motivated to do something that we can only strongly advise against in the present circumstances.

We would like to urge you to refrain from parties and other similar events, not to attend, promote or play down them. Hereby we do not only want to express that your safety is very important to us, but we also would like to distance ourselves clearly from parties and events of this kind that do not help to contain a dissemination of COVID-19.

As part of the local students' union at TU Graz (HTU Graz) as well as closely linked to the universities we feel obliged to support the university at best to avoid further infections. Also we want to make a contribution towards protecting our fellow humans and in the interest of our society.

To containing a dissemination of COVID-19 we will therefore limit and accordingly adapt the services too. We ask you to consider the implemented measures and thank you for your understanding!

If you are living at a student dorm in Graz, went to a dorm-party in the last 2 weeks or had contact with a person who did so, please call 1450 in case you show symptoms and inform others that you could be tested positive for COVID-19.

Statement ESN Graz due to COVID-19 positive tested students regarding student dorm parties:

Regarding the issue of infected students after a party in a student dorm in Graz, we as ESN Graz want to declare that this party was NOT an ESN Graz organised event but a party organised only by the students from the dorm. Although there were members of ESN Graz attending the event, they did that in their free time, on their own responsibility and risk and aside from their volunteer work at ESN.

We lament the incident and are working on a solution for upcoming events and our physical services, which are now more than ever at risk. If ESN Graz comes to the conclusion that making the events happen would be an incalculable risk for participants and staff, and the events cannot be organised with appropriate measures with a high degree of safety for all involved persons, the upcoming events will be postponed or cancelled until further notice.

As ESN Graz we are trying to the best of our ability to inform international students in Graz about the current COVID-19 situation in Austria and regarding to our services and be a role model to them by acting according to the safety restrictions by the Austrian government and universities in Graz.

Still, ESN can not keep students from having parties and violate restrictions. ESN Graz has no specific knowledge of how and if there were safety measures at the said party or other external events, but can ensure that strict measures and restrictions will be tried to follow to the maximum at our own events.

ESN Graz / Department for International Affairs, HTU Graz (students' union)