Those over 14 years of age residing in Austria They will be obliged from next February to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and could be exposed to fines of up to 3,600 euros if they do not do so, as reported by the country’s own government. The conservative executive has justified this measure as the only option to protect society and avoid continuous confinement against the pandemic.
The Minister of Health, the environmentalist Wolfgang Mückstein, has explained that once the four-week legal review period has passed, the plan is to debate and pass the law in Parliament to take effect in early February.
Every three months vaccination appointments will be established to which all unvaccinated citizens will be summoned. Those who don’t will have to pay a fine of 600 euros (about $ 680).
If they refuse, a process will start that can end with a penalty of up to 3,600 euros, although the amount will be adjusted to the income level of the affected person.
The minister acknowledged that when he took office last April did not think it would be necessary to impose vaccination Mandatory because there would be enough people who would decide to get immunized.
However, the current complete vaccination rate -lower than 68% of the population- “is not enough” to protect society against COVID-19added the minister. Pregnant women will be exempt from the obligation, although the minister recommended that they be vaccinated, and those who cannot do so for health reasons will need a medical certification.
In this regard, the minister warned that physicians who issue false certificates may also be penalized with up to 3,600 euros. At first, the law will be in effect until January 2024.
“You can’t go from lockdown to lockdown. We need the solidarity of the whole world to face this enormous challenge, “declared the minister for the Constitution, the conservative Karoline Edtstadler.
He assured that this measure is “the last resort” and something that no one wanted to have to apply but also “the only way” to ensure the freedom that those who oppose the vaccine claim, precisely. “I also ask those vaccinated to speak with those who have not taken that step, speak with those who think differently,” requested Edtstadler.
The measure also has the support of the social democratic and liberal opposition, and with the opposition of the ultranationalists of the FPÖ. The four parties that support this law have 151 of the 183 seats in Parliament.
The FPÖ, for its part, denounces the measure as dictatorial. This training has come to recommend the use of horse deworming products or ibuprofen as effective remedies against COVID-19.
The details of the mandatory vaccination law against COVID-19 are announced in the final stretch of the current confinement which will end next Saturday at midnight.
Austria was one of the European countries most affected by the pandemic in November, with an incidence in seven days of more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Now, a few days after the reopening of non-essential activities, including hotels and restaurants in some regions, the incidence is found in 482 cases.
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