Austria has ordered the closure for the fourth time since the beginning of the pandemic, and was the first EU country to take drastic measures in this wave. From Monday, people will only be allowed to leave home if they are traveling to work, school, shopping or for medical walks. Restaurants will close, most shops and all events with a larger number of participants will be canceled.
“Believe me, the need to restrict people’s freedom again is very difficult for me,” Schallenberg said in an interview with Sunday’s Kurier. According to him, the government hoped that it would never have to resort to such strict restrictions, but it was forced to do so by the high numbers of infected and the fact that the current restrictions for the unvaccinated did not have a very visible effect.
In Austria, there have been more than 14,000 new cases in the last day, which is an unusually high number in weekend statistics. The seven-day incidence, ie the number of people infected per 100,000 in the past week, has increased to 1,086.
In addition to the lockdown, the government also announced on Friday that it will introduce compulsory covid vaccination from February. 66 percent of the country’s people are fully vaccinated.
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Protests in the streets
It was Friday’s news of the closure and compulsory vaccinations that brought tens of thousands of people to the streets over the weekend to demonstrate. Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in the center of Vienna on Saturday. The police also reported a high turnout at a protest in Sunday in Linz, Upper Austria. It was originally estimated that about 600 people would arrive at the event, but there were at least ten times as many in the city center in the afternoon, the APA wrote.
There were a lot of red and white national flags in the crowd of protesters in Linz, as well as banners with the words “No vaccination obligations”, “Hands off our children” or “Vaccine is a crime against humanity”.
Austrian Minister for EU and Constitutional Affairs Karoline Edtstadler said in an interview with ORF on Sunday that the introduction of a vaccination obligation was not contrary to the constitution. According to her, the government consulted legal experts on the measure in advance, and no one said that the government was not entitled to do so.
Although the government has not yet released details of the mandatory vaccinations, Edtstadler said that failure to comply with this obligation would probably result in fines of up to 3,600 euros, which is about 90,000 crowns.
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Germany is also tightening
They also reinforce measures in Germany, especially in areas neighboring the Czech Republic. Bavaria is reducing public life when nine out of ten beds in the intensive care unit are occupied. According to the Bavarian prime minister, because of those who could not be vaccinated. “The incidence of the unvaccinated in Bavaria is over fifteen hundred. Incidence in vaccinated 110, “says Söder.
Bars and clubs are closed in Bavaria for at least three weeks. The streets are also becoming depopulated in another federal state, which borders the Czech Republic. Clubs, bars and sports and cultural facilities are scheduled to close in Saxony from Monday. In areas with the highest levels of infection, an unvaccinated night curfew will apply.
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In addition, their lives will be further complicated from Thursday, all over Germany. They will not be allowed to go to the workplace or public transport without the current test. In addition to the staff, this obligation is to be enforced by the police during random checks in some Länder. Moreover, the German health minister does not rule out that the next closure will fall on the vaccinated, as in Austria.
Protests in the Netherlands
For the second night in a row, they are demonstrating in the Netherlands against stricter covid measures. And again, the protests ended in violence. Protesters in The Hague set fire to cars and threw stones at police officers. Five of them suffered injuries. Other clashes took place in the city of Urk and in the southern province of Limburg. Around 35,000 protesters protested in Brussels on Sunday.
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