Austria became the first European country to introduce a Covid-19 vaccine mandate after President Alexander Van der Bellen gave his assent to the law on Friday. The law, which was first introduced in November last year, will come into effect from Saturday, making it compulsory for adults to vaccinate against the novel coronavirus. According to the government, the law has been brought in to “protect public health” and will be applicable to all adults. So, what is this vaccine mandate law? The Bundesrat, the Upper House of the Austrian Parliament, passed the law by a 47-12 majority, after which it was approved by the Lower House. The law requires all adults to be inoculated with centrally approved and recognised vaccines. Austrian Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein tweeted on Thursday: “Compulsory vaccination will help us against the next waves — in the fight against upcoming virus variants because the Covid vaccinations work very well against severe courses and deaths, and the Booster works even better.” As per the law, everyone in the country has to have an active vaccination status by March 15, 2022, post which the government would impose fines starting from 600 euros to up to 3,600 euros. The fine can be imposed up to four times a year. According to a report in the New York Times, Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said on Friday, “For a long time — maybe too long — I and others assumed that it must be possible to convince people in Austria to voluntarily get vaccinated…We therefore have reached a very difficult decision to introduce a national vaccine mandate.” The only exceptions to the law are pregnant women, people who cannot be vaccinated without a specific and serious risk to life or health, those whose immune response to Covid-19 vaccination cannot be expected for medical reasons, those who have not developed an immune response to the vaccination even after repeated dosages, and those who have recovered from an infection (but only for 180 days since the detection of the virus). These exemptions, however, are applicable till the end of the month. A person would only be exempted if a “technically suitable” hospital specifies the same to the health minister or the same is confirmed by a public health officer or an epidemic doctor. The person seeking exemptions should submit all required documents. The health officials who issue fake exemptions or fail to disclose an exceptional reason would be committing an administrative offence and be fined 7,200 euros. The Federal Minister would also be held responsible for failing “to protect public health or to protect the rights of the persons concerned”. The law will remain in force till January 31, 2024. What will be the vaccination process? Austrians would be informed about the details of the new law by March 15 and the federal government would begin collecting data of people who have not been vaccinated till then. The police would then begin monitoring the public at different spaces to check the vaccination status. The law, however, doesn’t ascertain a date for this but a vaccination register would be rolled out to keep a track of citizens who have not been inoculated. Austria’s strict vaccination policy Austria, in November 2022, had imposed a lockdown for those who were unvaccinated. The police were conducting checks on commuters after the mandate was rolled out. Those who breached the law had to pay fines to the tune of 500-3,600 euros. Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg had then said: “We must raise the vaccination rate. It is shamefully low.” While the lockdown was initially supposed to last for 10 days, it was lifted after two months on Monday. Karl Nehammer, Austria’s chancellor, had said that from Saturday, shops and restaurants would be allowed to reopen. People who are still not vaccinated will be able to visit these places if they can show a Covid-negative certificate. The cap on the number of people attending events has also been raised from 25 to 50. Newsletter | Click to get the day's best explainers in your inbox What’s the Covid situation in the country? Austria is reporting an average of over 30,000 fresh cases each day, according to Reuters. The total number of Covid cases in the country stands at 1,995,346, while the death toll is 14,192. According to the World Health Organisation, till January 29, 17.4 lakh doses of a Covid-19 have been administered, which is about 68.8 per cent of Austria’s population.
