Days after Austria imposed a lockdown on the unvaccinated, it has announced a full national Covid-19 lockdown starting on Monday.
Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said it would last a maximum of 20 days and there would be a legal requirement to get vaccinated from 1 February 2022.
He was responding to record case numbers and one of the lowest vaccination levels in Western Europe.
Many other European countries are imposing restrictions as cases rise.
“We don’t want a fifth wave,” said Mr Schallenberg after meeting the governors of Austria’s nine provinces at a resort in the west of the country.
For a long time, there had been a consensus over avoiding mandatory vaccinations, the chancellor said.
However, too many people had been incited not to get the jab, because of “too many political forces, flimsy vaccination opponents and fake news”, he added. The measures are yet to be finalised. -bbc
