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By Jon Jackson
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A 54-year-old woman in Austria was found guilty of fatally infecting her neighbor with COVID-19 nearly three years ago, according to a Friday report.
On Thursday, a judge sentenced the woman to four months' suspended imprisonment and fined her $886.75 for grossly negligent homicide. The Associated Press (AP) reported that local media said the punishment was the second time the woman has received a pandemic-related conviction in a year.
Due to Austrian privacy rules, the names of the deceased and the defendant have not been released.
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Citing the Austria Press Agency (APA), the AP said the victim was a cancer patient and died of pneumonia that was caused by the coronavirus. An expert reportedly told the court that tests showed that the virus DNA matched both the victim and the 54-year-old woman.
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Statements from the deceased person's family were presented during the trial this week that said the two neighbors made contact in a stairwell on December 21, 2021. The defendant allegedly knew she had COVID-19 at that time, but she denied this and said she believed she had bronchitis. She also denied meeting with the neighbor in the stairwell.
However, the defendant's doctor reportedly told police that she had tested positive for COVID with a rapid test and indicated to him that she wouldn't be keeping herself inside despite having the virus.
"I feel sorry for you personally—I think that something like this has probably happened hundreds of times," the judge told the woman during her Thursday sentencing, per the AP. "But you are unlucky that an expert has determined with almost absolute certainty that it was an infection that came from you."
Even though the judge issued his sentence for the woman on Thursday, the verdict has not been finalized, according to the APA. The APA also reported that the defendant was convicted last summer for intentionally endangering people through communicable diseases in another COVID-related offense.
For last year's conviction, she was reportedly given a sentence of three months' suspended imprisonment but was acquitted of the more serious charge of grossly negligent homicide.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Austria recorded over 6 million coronavirus cases during the pandemic and reported over 22,000 confirmed deaths due to COVID-19.
Austria also went through multiple country-wide lockdowns during the pandemic, but the government announced in February 2022 that most of its COVID-19 restrictions were being lifted.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
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