Over the past two weeks, the conservative green coalition government has tried to prevent a collapse of the health system by making it mandatory for citizens to show proof of vaccination or recovery at restaurants and bars, and then announcing a “lockdown for the unvaccinated”. The country has the lowest vaccination rate in western Europe, with 66% of its population fully vaccinated. It recorded another 15,809 new infections on Friday. “We don’t want a fifth wave, we don’t want a sixth or a seventh wave.”Īustria is weathering its most powerful wave of Covid, with authorities on Friday reporting 990 cases per 100,000 people over seven days. Tightening vaccine pass controls and testing requirements had started to make a difference but it “hasn’t convinced enough”, said Schallenberg, who took over as chancellor last month from his party ally Sebastian Kurz. “In spite of months of persuasion, we have not managed to convince enough people to be vaccinated”. “For a long time the consensus in this country was that we don’t want a vaccine mandate,” Schallenberg said after a meeting with the Alpine republic’s heads of state. Those refusing to be vaccinated are likely to face administrative fines, which can be converted into a prison sentence if the fine cannot be recovered.
The age from which people will be required to be vaccinated has not yet been determined, the government said. The government said it was preparing the legal groundwork for a general vaccine mandate to come into effect from 1 February, with exemptions for those unable to receive a jab on medical grounds. Austria is to become the first European country to make vaccinations against Covid 19 mandatory, and will go into its fourth nationwide lockdown for at least 10 days from Monday, the chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, has announced.
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