Austria will become the first European country to make adult coronavirus vaccination mandatory in February, Chancellor Carl Nehammer said today, acknowledging it was “a sensitive issue”.
Nehamer, a conservative politician who took office in December, said those who did not comply with the measure would face severe fines.
“We will decide on the mandatory vaccination as planned. It will come into force in early February,” the chancellor told a news conference.
Since the announcement of compulsory vaccination plans last year, Austria has been embroiled in a heated debate on the issue in both parliament and society.
To date, 71.5% of those who can be vaccinated in the country have done so, a much lower rate than many of Austria’s neighbors in the EU.
Nehamer acknowledged that the decision covered “a very sensitive issue”, but said it had been “carefully considered”.
As he explained, after an “initial period” of implementation of the measure, in mid-March the measures against those who will continue to resist the vaccination will begin to be tightened, including the imposition of fines ranging from 600 to 3,600 euros.
In the second phase of the application those who are not vaccinated will be reminded and in the third phase they will be invited to attend their vaccination appointment and if they do not do so they will be fined.
“At best we will not need this third phase,” he said.
Yesterday, about 27,000 people protested in Vienna against the measures, which are characterized as an attack on individual freedoms.
At the same time, the Austrian government proposed that the minimum age for compulsory coronavirus vaccination be 18 years.
Last month the government said it planned to make compulsory vaccination valid for 14 years and over.
“This is not a fight between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated,” said Nehamer, who has just been released from quarantine after being infected with coronavirus.
The government, he added, needs to move forward with this plan because many remain unvaccinated so that everyone can socialize freely and stressed the need to avoid new lockdowns.
Many Austrians are wary of vaccination, a view espoused by the far-right Freedom Party, the third largest force in parliament.
Parliament is expected to vote on the bill this week.
Critics of the vaccine argue that, apart from the issue of individual liberties, existing vaccines do not inhibit virus transmission or re-infection, and that the predominant Omicron variant appears to be milder and causes less serious illness than previous ones.
As the number of cases in the country reached very high levels at the end of last year, the government announced a fourth national lockdown and announced the mandatory vaccinations.
Those who can not be vaccinated for medical reasons and pregnant women are excluded.
The Austrian health authorities have recorded more than 1.4 million cases and almost 14.00 deaths from complications of the disease since the beginning of 2020 when the pandemic broke out.
The government is seeking to avoid a complete lockdown like the one that erupted last month, the fourth since the pandemic began.
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