Due to record Covid-19 case counts and crowded intensive care units, Austria is expecting to declare nationwide lockdown of unvaccinated people, in what would be the broadest restrictions that any country has yet placed on those who have opted not to get the jab.
KEY FACTS
A lockdown is “probably inevitable,” Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said in a statement Thursday.
It would follow an incremental government plan set in place in September, which states that a lockdown of unvaccinated Austrians must be implemented when 30% of ICU beds are occupied by Covid-19 patients.
The current level is 20% and increasing fast, according to Reuters.
Unvaccinated people will not be allowed to leave their homes unless they are “going to work, shopping (for essentials), [or] stretching one’s legs,” Schallenberg said.
Upper Austria, the country’s third largest state, will begin a lockdown of the unvaccinated Monday, provided it receives legal confirmation from the federal government, Gov. Thomas Stelzer said in a statement.
“For me it is clear: there should be no lockdown of the vaccinated out of solidarity for the unvaccinated,” Schallenberg said Thursday. “I don’t see that two-thirds should lose their freedom because one third is hesitating.”
Lockdowns targeting the unvaccinated are becoming more common. In Victoria, Australia, citizens were allowed to emerge from a lockdown Oct. 29 if they were fully vaccinated. It’s expected that the restrictions on the unvaccinated will remain in place through 2022, The Guardian says. In New South Wales, lockdowns were lifted on Oct. 11, though unvaccinated people were barred from most public activities until Dec. 1, according to Reuters. Russia, currently in the midst of its worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic, has issued a national stay-at-home order for the unvaccinated, but only those 60 and older.