Austria makes vaccination mandatory from February

Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said at a press conference that the vaccination requirement will enter into force on February 1, 2022. To write the International News Agency Reuters. So Austria is the first European country to impose a vaccination obligation, and it will be completely shut down again this winter.

The full closure will begin next Monday. The closure will be evaluated after ten days and will last for a maximum of twenty days.

The closure was announced a few days ago for people who are not immunized, but infections are escalating exponentially. The two hardest-hit provinces, Salzburg and Upper Austria, had already announced on Thursday that they would go into complete lockdown, in order to put pressure on the national government.

First in Europe, but not all over the world

Austria has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Western Europe. About two-thirds of the population is vaccinated, while the infection rate is among the highest: 991 per 100,000 residents are infected weekly. “We haven’t been able to get enough people to get vaccinated,” Schallenberg said during the press conference. “It hurts to take such drastic measures, but it must be done,” Schallenberg said.

Austria is the first country in Western Europe to impose a vaccination obligation, but there are countries outside Europe that have already implemented a vaccination obligation. Vaccination is already mandatory in Indonesia, Micronesia and Turkmenistan. Children are the exception here, depending on each country. Closer to home, vaccination was already mandatory, especially for healthcare workers. In Great Britain, there is an obligation to vaccinate health care workers from 1 April, in France health care and emergency personnel must have had their first vaccination since 15 September. 3,000 employees were suspended for not doing so. In Greece, vaccination has been made mandatory for nursing home workers since July and for health care workers in general since September.

And in Belgium?

There is also debate in Belgium about whether there should be a compulsory vaccination. Health Minister Frank Vandenbroek (Forweet) previously thought the vaccination obligation was “not a problem”, but he is now a supporter.

On Monday evening, Minister Vandenbroek (Forwitt) Minister Vandenbroek’s (Forwitt) Health Care Personnel Mandatory Vaccination Bill was discussed and approved by the federal government’s primary cabinet. (November 16 DS). The Cabinet in full had to give the green light, after which the law would go to the House of Representatives. But PS is now going back to the previous agreement and demanding that compulsory vaccination in healthcare cannot lead to dismissal, as long as there is no general obligation to vaccinate.