Days after Austria imposed a lockdown on the unvaccinated, its government on Friday announced the imposition of a full national Covid-19 lockdown starting on Monday. With this, Austria will enter a fourth national lockdown as Covid-19 cases continue to surge, becoming the first country in Western Europe to impose stringent measures this fall. Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said the lockdown would last a maximum of 20 days and there would be a legal requirement to get vaccinated from 1 February 2022.
Lockdown in Austria Again?
A major cause behind the reimposition of the lockdown is being attributed to the spike in Covid-19 cases in the country along with its low levels of vaccination. A report by Reuters noted that roughly two-thirds of Austria’s population is fully vaccinated against Coronavirus which is one of the lowest rates in western Europe while its infections are among the highest on the continent, with a seven-day incidence of 991 per 100,000 people.
Incidentally, Austria had introduced a lockdown for all those who were unvaccinated on Monday but since then infections have continued to set new records, making it impossible for the authorities to avoid a lockdown.
Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein said imposing a lockdown was a ‘last resort’, BBC reported.
Also Read: Austria First Country in Western Europe to Reimpose Full Covid Lockdown Amid Fresh Wave
While Schallenberg had previously rejected the notion of placing all Austrians under lockdown, some members of the country’s coalition government had been calling for tougher restrictions for the vaccinated as hospitals and ICU units came under increasing strain. The government has been facing pushback from the country’s third-biggest party, the right-wing Freedom Party, which said Friday that “as of today, Austria is a dictatorship.”
Austria Makes Vaccination Compulsory From Feb 1
“We don’t want the fifth wave," said Mr Schallenberg in a report by BBC, after meeting the governors of Austria’s nine provinces at a resort in western Austria while also deliberating on the vaccine hesitancy prevalent in the country.
For a long time, there had been a consensus over avoiding mandatory vaccinations, the chancellor said. However, too many people had been incited not to get the jab, because of “too many political forces, flimsy vaccination opponents and fake news", he added.
“We have not succeeded in convincing enough people to get vaccinated," Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg told a news conference, saying the lockdown would start on Monday and the requirement to be vaccinated on Feb. 1."It hurts that such measures still have to be taken."
What are the Lockdown Measures?
Under the new lockdown measures, Austrians will be asked to work from home. Non-essential shops will remain closed while schools will remain open for children who require face-to-face learning. The new measures are set to continue until 12 December but will be reassessed after 10 days.
It is the first full lockdown imposed by an EU country this winter. The two worst-hit provinces, Salzburg and Upper Austria had said on Thursday that they would introduce their own lockdowns thus raising pressure on the government to do the same nationally.
The Europe regional director of the World Health Organization, Hans Kluge, has warned of a hard winter ahead. He blamed insufficient vaccination coverage along with “the easing of preventive measures and the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant".
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