Austria in lockdown from Monday, vaccination mandatory from February 1

(Patria) - At a press conference in Vienna, Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced that the entire country will be in lockdown from Monday and that mandatory vaccination for all citizens will be introduced from February 1.

According to the newspaper Heute, the closure of catering facilities and service activities is expected, while schools and kindergartens should be open only for children of workers employed in activities of essential importance for the functioning of society.

The only things that would be open are supermarkets and pharmacies. Movement would be prohibited, except for going grocery shopping, to the pharmacy, or to the doctor. The lockdown for everyone automatically ends on December 13, but only for the vaccinated and those who have recovered from COVID, and it remains in effect for others. Ten days after Monday, it will be checked whether these measures have an effect, and in case of a positive evaluation, the lockdown will be lifted for the vaccinated.

Let us remind you that two Austrian regions most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, Salzburg and Upper Austria, have already announced that they will introduce a quarantine for the entire population from Monday.

Yesterday, Austria had 15,145 new cases of infection. Salzburg had 1,700, and Upper Austria, the region whose capital is Linz, had 1,600. Both regions have the lowest vaccination rates in the country.