Austria imposes a nationwide COVID lockdown — but only for unvaccinated people
Austria has taken what its leader calls the dramatic step of imposing a nationwide lockdown on residents who haven’t been inoculated against COVID-19.
BERLIN — Austria took what its leader called the dramatic step Monday of implementing a nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated people who haven’t recently had COVID-19, perhaps the most drastic of a string of measures being taken by European governments to get a massive coronavirus resurgence in the region under control.
The move, which took effect at midnight Sunday night, prohibits people 12 years old and older who haven’t been vaccinated or recently recovered from leaving their homes except for basic activities such as working, grocery shopping, going to school or a university or for a walk — or getting vaccinated.
The lockdown is initially being imposed until Nov. 24 in the Alpine country of 8.9 million. It doesn’t apply to children under 12 because they cannot yet officially get inoculated — though the capital, Vienna, opened up vaccinations Monday for under-12s as part of a pilot program and reported high demand.
Officials have said that police patrols will be stepped up and that unvaccinated people can be fined up to 1,450 euros ($1,660) if they violate the lockdown.
“We really didn’t take this step lightly, and I don’t think it should be talked down,” Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg told Oe1 radio. “This is a dramatic step — about 2 million people in this country are affected. ... What we are trying is precisely to reduce contact between the unvaccinated and vaccinated to a minimum, and also contact between the unvaccinated.
“My aim is very clearly to get the unvaccinated to get themselves vaccinated and not to lock down the vaccinated,” Schallenberg added. “In the long term, the way out of this vicious circle we are in — and it is a vicious circle, we are stumbling from wave to lockdown, and that can’t carry on ad infinitum — is only vaccination.”
As Europe copes with a COVID surge, battle lines are forming between the vaccine-willing and vaccine-resistant. Sound familiar?
About 65% of the Austrian population is fully vaccinated, a rate that Schallenberg has described as “shamefully low.” All students at schools, whether vaccinated or not, are now required to take three tests per week, at least one of them a PCR test.
Authorities are concerned about rising infections and increasing pressure on hospitals. Austria on Monday recorded 894.3 new cases per 100,000 residents over the previous seven days. Its situation is far worse than that of neighboring Germany, where case rates Monday hit the latest in a string of records, with 303 new cases per 100,000 residents over seven days.
Berlin on Monday became the latest of several German states to limit access to restaurants, cinemas, museums and concerts to people who have been vaccinated or recently recovered — shutting out unvaccinated people who have tested negative. Under-18s are exempted.
On Thursday, the German parliament is due to vote on a new legal framework for coronavirus restrictions drawn up by the parties that are expected to form the country’s next government. Those plans are reportedly being beefed up to allow tougher contact restrictions than originally envisioned.
The U.K.’s challenges demonstrates what happens when vaccination rates among children are too low.
Separately, one of the three parties that hope to take office early next month said the new coalition would consider a vaccine mandate in some areas, a step officials so far have balked at.
“We will need compulsory vaccination ... in nursing homes, in day-care centers and so on,” said the Greens’ parliamentary group leader, Katrin Goering-Eckardt. “We will get that off the ground.”
Germany has struggled to bring new momentum to its vaccination campaign, with just over two-thirds of the population fully vaccinated, and is trying to ramp up booster shots.
Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a new appeal Saturday for holdouts to get vaccinated. “Think about it again,” she said. The country’s disease control center called last week for people to cancel or avoid large events.
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To Germany’s west, the Netherlands on Saturday night implemented a partial lockdown that is due to run for at least three weeks, forcing bars and restaurants to close at 8 p.m. In the northern city of Leeuwarden, hundreds of young people gathered in a central square, setting off fireworks and holding flares, before riot police moved in to push protesters out.
In Austria, the leader of the far-right opposition Freedom Party vowed to combat the new restrictions by “all parliamentary and legal means we have available.” Herbert Kickl said in a statement that “2 million people are being practically imprisoned without having done anything wrong.”
On Monday, Kickl announced on Facebook that he had tested positive for the coronavirus and must self-isolate for 14 days, and so will not be able to attend a protest in Vienna planned for Saturday.
The government’s next move, however, may well be to tighten the screws.
Ukraine and other Eastern European countries are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths as many residents resist getting inoculated.
Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein told ORF television that he wants to discuss further measures Wednesday, saying that one proposal on the table concerns limits on going out at night that would also apply to vaccinated people.
Schallenberg sounded a more cautious note.
“Of course I don’t rule out sharpening” the measures, he said, but he indicated that he doesn’t expect restrictions on bars and the like at present. He said further measures could include requiring full medical masks in more places, more working from home and requiring vaccinated people to get tested before going to events.
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