Days after Austria imposed a lockdown on the unvaccinated, it has announced a full national COVID-19 lockdown starting on Monday.
Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg stated that it would last a maximum of 20 days and there would be a legal requirement to get vaccinated from 1 February 2022. He was responding to record cases numbers and one of the lowest vaccination levels in Western Europe. Many other European countries are imposing restrictions as cases rise. Mr Schallenberg stated, “We do not want a fifth wave.”
For a long time, there had been a consensus over avoiding mandatory vaccinations. However, too many people had been incited not to get the jab because “too many political forces, flimsy vaccination opponents and fake news.” Latest figures show the incidence rate has risen to 1,049.9 cases per 100,000 people in the past week and Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein stated that imposing a lockdown was a “last resort”. A record 15,809 cases were reported in the past 24 hours, in a population of under nine million.
