COVID-19: Austrian Parliament set to make vaccine mandate for adults

Austria has made vaccination mandatory for its adult population on Thursday, January 20, 2022. From February 1, 2022, people who have received their jabs of a vaccine against the COVID-19 virus will be permitted to roam in the country.

On Thursday, the Parliament of Austria has voted in favour of mandating immunization against the novel coronavirus for adults and make it law. Now, the country has imposed mandatory vaccination for the people by introducing it as a law.

With the imposition of the provision, Austria has become the first country in Europe which have introduced such kinds of measures or laws regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the Parliament, around 1333 votes were in favour of the mandate, while it was 33 votes against the respective measures of the COVID-19. Now, the measures will be applied to all the residents of Austria who are of 18 age and over 18.

Meanwhile, pregnant women, people who have genuine medical resaon not to get vaccinated or who have been discharged or received from the deadly viral infection in the past six months are such cases that can be exceptions while going for the mandate.

As per the officials, the provision is necessary because of the country’s too low rate of immunisation.

While speaking in the Parliament, Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein called the step a big and for the first time and asserted,” It will be the proved essential and significant initiative by the Austria government to combat the transmissible COVID-19 virus”.

“The mandatory vaccination is the only solution through which we could stop the cycle of opening and closing of lockdowns. It is necessary to fight with the Omicron variant and the future variants that can emerge. That’s the reason the law is so urgently imposed in the country”, Health Minister noted.

Firstly, the Austrian government has declared a mandate of vaccination universally and introduced the since-lifted lockdown in November. Still, immunisation was comparatively low for Western Europe.

Till Wednesday, around 71.8 percent of the 8.9 million population of the country was fully vaccinated.

Chancellor Karl Nehammer called for the imposition of the provision and urged that the provision will come into effect at the beginning of February, while its implementation will be started in March.

So, police in Austria will start checking the vaccination status of the population in mid-March as routine checks. Moreover, if people were unable to present their proof of vaccination will be fined up to 600 euros after getting warnings.