Austria enacts law on compulsory vaccination

Alexander Van der Bellen, the president of Austria, enacted this Friday the law on the compulsory vaccination against him COVID-19 in his country. The norm will enter into force on Saturday, it is an unprecedented measure within the European Union (EU).

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The Austrian Presidentenacted today (Friday) at noon the federal law on mandatory vaccination against COVID-19″, as announced by the presidency in a statement.

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The norm was published right after in the official gazette and “therefore, it will take effect on Saturday”, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health told AFP.

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The law affects all residents over the age of 18 in this country of 8.9 million people, except pregnant women, those who contracted the virus less than 180 days ago, and those who may be exempted for medical reasons.

Controls will only start in mid-March and unvaccinated people will face fines ranging from 600 to 3,600 euros ($700-4,000).

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However, they may be voided if the offender is vaccinated within two weeks.

Some 60% of Austrians support the law, which was adopted in January with a large majority. Only the extreme right voted against.

However, it generates rejection in another important part of the population.

In recent weeks, tens of thousands of people have demonstrated to denounce a measure they consider radical and freedom-killing.

Criticisms have also arisen about the meaning of the law given the less seriousness of the omicron variant and the explosion in the number of cases.

In fact, the government has announced that health restrictions will soon be relaxed, even for unvaccinated people, who are currently excluded from restaurants and cultural and sports venues.

But for the Minister of Health, Wolfgang Mückstein, the mandatory vaccination is aimed at protecting oneself from “new waves”, “to fight new variants” that could appear in the coming months, as explained Thursday on Twitter.

Less than 70% of the Austrian population has the complete vaccination schedule (with the obligation in most cases to present three doses), a percentage lower than that of France or Spain and that has decreased even more after the recent expiration of many certificates.

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Source: Elcomercio

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