Austria decides to lockdown for unvaccinated people from Monday

The government is also interested in something else: it absolutely wants more residents of the country to be vaccinated. In a Western European comparison, the vaccination quota is relatively low at around 65 percent, and with the FPÖ there is an important party whose spokesmen are at least partially hard-boiled vaccine opponents.

Austria has a “shamefully low vaccination rate,” said Schallenberg. The government’s appeals now sound almost desperate. “Please give yourself a jerk,” the Chancellor called out to those unwilling to vaccinate on Sunday. “Make an appointment today.” Linked to this was an appeal to the conscience of the population: Just solidarity with the health workers, he said, commanded to be vaccinated.

High fines threaten

Austria has recorded a sharp increase in daily reported corona infections for around a month. The number recently rose to 13,500, surpassing the high of last autumn of around 9,500.

Around 420 intensive care beds are currently occupied, a year ago it was at its high of 714. The seven-day incidence is 815, with large regional differences. In Upper Austria there are areas with a value of over 2000. Specifically, this means: In the past seven days, at least two percent of the population there have been infected with Covid-19.

The government knows how difficult it is to control a lockdown for unvaccinated people. Accordingly, she set up a threatening backdrop on Sunday. Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said that controls would be carried out on an unprecedented scale. Anyone who refuses to be checked by the police must expect a fine of 1450 euros.

Schallenberg does not want a lockdown for vaccinated people

The new lockdown will further aggravate the domestic political climate in Austria and at least partially radicalize those who oppose the vaccination. The government accepts that. Apparently she has come to the conclusion that without a higher vaccination rate, life in the country will not normalize for the foreseeable future; The government no longer wants to accept the fact that hospital staff are repeatedly attacked as a result of the high workload.

At the same time, Schallenberg made the impression that he wanted to avoid a lockdown for vaccinated people at all costs. The former Health Minister Rudolf Anschober has proposed this at least for the federal states of Salzburg and Upper Austria particularly affected by the epidemic.

However, the Chancellor does not want to punish those who contributed to the fight against the pandemic – by getting vaccinated. Nevertheless, Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein threatened to take further measures if the dynamics of the infections accelerated.

Failure of winter tourism could ruin hotels

Such a development would particularly worry providers in the tourism sector. In no other country in the northern hemisphere is winter tourism as important as in Austria. In the last full winter season before the pandemic, the number of overnight stays was 73 million. In comparison, Switzerland, which is also considered a winter sports nation, had a modest number of 17 million overnight stays.

All hotels in Austria had to close last winter. In some of the travelers’ home countries, there were strict quarantine rules. Ski tourists, for example from Germany, therefore had no opportunity to practice their sport in Austria. However, German winter sports enthusiasts are very important in the neighboring country. In Tyrol, for example, they make up 50 percent of the guests.

A second failure of the winter season would cost the country dearly: Either the government would have to support the industry again with large sums of money, or it would accept that many hotels would go bankrupt.

Your financial situation is sometimes strained. “Resilience is required in a crisis,” says Oliver Fritz, economist at the Wifo business institute. “But many hotels in Austria lack this.” Fritz is addressing the sometimes low equity ratios of the companies, which have continued to shrink during the pandemic.

Söder calls for contact restrictions for unvaccinated people

In Germany, too, calls for further restrictions for unvaccinated people are getting louder: In view of the dramatically increasing corona numbers, Bayer’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) considers contact restrictions for unvaccinated people to be necessary. “We need the possibility of contact restrictions for unvaccinated people,” said Söder on Sunday before an exam in his cabinet in Munich. This is needed as an additional instrument – otherwise you will not be able to master the increasing number of corona infections. At the same time, he demanded maximum number of persons for events.

In an urgent appeal, Söder called for the federal and state governments to join forces – and called on the traffic light negotiating partners to sharpen the draft infection protection law significantly. “The situation threatens to slip away across the country. Just ducking away is not enough. We must now all – federal, state – act together resolutely. We need solidarity and not shifting back and forth ”, he demanded and emphasized:“ Proclaiming the end of the epidemic situation is the wrong way in every respect. ”

Specifically, Söder called for mandatory vaccinations for certain professions, 2G – that is, access only for vaccinated and recovered people – throughout Germany, 2G plus – vaccinated or recovered plus test – for all discos and clubs and a nationwide FFP2 mask requirement in long-distance traffic. And he will work very hard to ensure that there are upper limits for events, especially in football, but also elsewhere. “We need upper limits, that has to be done uniformly.” If the federal government does not take action, Bavaria will otherwise do this independently.

With agency material

More: “Normal operation in hospitals no longer possible”: Upper Austria in lockdown