Vienna: Austria will become the first country in western Europe to reimpose a full coronavirus lockdown to tackle a new wave of infections, and will require its whole population to be vaccinated as of February. This will make the country the first in the EU to take such stringent measures as coronavirus cases spiral.
The Alpine nation plans to make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory from February 1 next year, while the lockdown will start from Monday and will be evaluated after 10 days.
Austria had initially introduced a national lockdown only for the unvaccinated that started Monday, but as virus cases continued to skyrocket the government said it had no choice but to extend it to everyone. “This is very painful,” Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said.
He blamed those refusing to be vaccinated for an “attack on the health system”.
For the past seven days, the country has reported more than 10,000 new infection cases daily. Hospitals have been overwhelmed with many new COVID-19 patients, and deaths have been rising again, too. So far, 11,525 people have died of the virus in Austria.
Austria, a country of 8.9 million, has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Western Europe — only 65.7% of the population are fully vaccinated.
Despite all the persuasion and campaigns, too few people have decided to get vaccinated, Schallenberg said, leaving the country no other choice but to introduce mandatory vaccinations in February.
The chancellor said the details would be finalized in the coming weeks but those who continued to refuse to get vaccinated would have to expect to get fined.
The lockdown means people are no longer allowed to leave their houses with few exceptions such shopping for essentials and exercising.
Demand for vaccinations has increased in recent days, and 66 percent of the population are now fully jabbed, slightly below the EU average of more than 67 percent.
Other European countries are also tightening the restrictions as cases surge across the continent.
(With inputs from agencies)