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Austria’s government announced on Friday that it will be the first country in Western Europe to reimpose a full coronavirus lockdown this autumn to combat a new wave of infections and that its entire population will be vaccinated by February.
Austria has one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 vaccination in Western Europe, with roughly two-thirds of the population fully vaccinated. It has one of the highest infection rates on the continent, with a seven-day infection rate of 991 per 100,000 people.
On Monday, Austria imposed a lockdown on all unvaccinated people, but infections have continued to hit new records since then.
Salzburg and Upper Austria, the two worst-affected provinces, announced on Thursday that they would implement their own lockdowns, putting pressure on the government to do the same across the country.
“We have not succeeded in convincing enough people to get vaccinated,” Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg told a news conference, saying the lockdown would start on Monday and the requirement to be vaccinated on Feb. 1.
“It hurts that such measures still have to be taken.”
As winters are approaching Europe the government has said to impose lockdowns.
The Netherlands has reintroduced a partial curfew, with bars and restaurants shutting at 8:00 p.m.
The controversy has also widened a schism between Schallenberg’s conservatives and their left-wing coalition partner, the Greens. Even as Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein called for a nighttime curfew, Schallenberg said just days ago that he did not want to impose more restrictions on the unvaccinated.