LOCKDOWN FOR THE UNVACCINATED IS LIKELY, AUSTRIA’S CHANCELLOR SAYS

Fri 12 November 2021:

Austria’s chancellor has increased warnings of lockdown measures for unvaccinated people, as the number of coronavirus infections continues to rise.

New laws went into force on Monday, prohibiting unvaccinated persons who haven’t recovered from an infection from entering restaurants, hotels, hairdressing salons, and major public events.

Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg indicated late last month that if infection rates continue to climb, which they have, unvaccinated people in Austria may face further lockdown limitations. Official numbers released on Thursday revealed 760.6 recorded new cases per 100,000 residents in the previous seven days.

“A lockdown for the unvaccinated means one cannot leave one’s home unless one is going to work, shopping (for essentials), stretching one’s legs – namely exactly what we all had to suffer through in 2020,” Schallenberg said, referring to three national lockdowns last year.

Officials in Upper Austria province, the country’s worst-affected region “plan a lockdown for unvaccinated people from Monday, provided that there is a legal green light from the federal government, or rather that the federal government creates the legal basis,” governor Thomas Stelzer said.

Dutch experts on Thursday recommended a two-week partial lockdown, which would be Western Europe’s first since vaccines were widely deployed, and other countries are requiring vaccination certificates to enter public spaces.

Austria, by contrast, wants to avoid imposing extra restrictions on those who are fully vaccinated.

Many Austrians are sceptical about vaccinations, a view encouraged by the far-right Freedom Party, the third-biggest in parliament.

(with agencies)

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