ÖAustria is again in lockdown due to Corona and will introduce mandatory vaccination in February. This was announced by Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg on Friday. Austria is suffering from a massive fourth wave of infections that could not be broken with the previous measures.
Despite all the persuasion and campaigns, too few people were vaccinated, said Schallenberg. Therefore, there will be compulsory vaccination from February 1, 2022. “We don’t want a fifth wave, we don’t want a sixth and seventh wave.” The virus will not go away, it will stay.
The lockdown is a difficult step. “That hurts a lot,” said the Chancellor. Without naming them, he strongly criticized the right-wing FPÖ, which is influential in Austria. Their vaccination criticism is actually an “attack on our health system”.
The lockdown will be assessed after ten days and will last a maximum of 20 days. By December 13th at the latest, the lockdown will be over for vaccinated and convalescent people, said Schallenberg. Then the 2-G rule should apply again.
Seven-day incidence in Austria at just under 1000
The seven-day incidence in Austria is almost 1000 and for more than a week more than 10,000 new infections with the coronavirus have been reported every day. Clinics are reaching their capacity limits. The situation is particularly dramatic in Salzburg and Upper Austria, with incidences of over 1,500 per 100,000 inhabitants.
The previous measures included a 3-G rule in the workplace. Employees must prove that they have been vaccinated, recovered or tested. On November 8th, the 2-G rule for events, gastronomy and tourism followed, which denied unvaccinated people access to large areas in their free time. The purpose of the measures was to increase willingness to vaccinate. However, the vaccines only work after a few weeks.
The head of government and his conservative government team had spoken out against further restrictions until the end. Suggestions by the Green Minister of Health Wolfgang Mückstein, for example, on night-time exit restrictions for everyone, were criticized. But on Thursday the federal states of Salzburg and Upper Austria, governed by the ÖVP, pushed forward with the announcement of regional lockdowns. Local and most businesses are closing, schools are moving to distance learning. Some other countries also signaled on Thursday that they would go along with it.
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