Austria Enacts A Tight Mandate For The Covid-19 Vaccination.
The decision was taken in Norway based on the impact of the Omicron variant, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stør said Tuesday, noting the variant was causing less severe illness, helped along by the country's successful vaccination rollout. Sweden, where only 70.4% of the population has had two shots, is set to remove most Covid-19 restrictions next week, officials said on Thursday.
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On Friday, President Alexander Van der Bellen signed into law a nationwide Covid-19 vaccine requirement for adults, making Austria the first country in Europe to do so.
Those who do not have a vaccine certificate or an exemption may face fines of up to 600 euros ($680) under Austria's new laws. From March 15, checks to see if the mandate is being followed will commence.
According to the Austrian Health Ministry's website, pregnant women and individuals who cannot be vaccinated without risking their health are excluded from the law.
The exemption also applies to those who have recently been diagnosed with Covid-19, and it lasts for 180 days from the date of their first positive PCR Covid-19 test.
Unvaccinated people might face a maximum fine of 3,600 euros ($4,000) up to four times a year if they are not on a vaccine registry by their allotted vaccination date under the new rule, which will remain until January 31, 2024.
As part of Germany's Covid-19 containment strategy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is pressing for a vaccine mandate, and a major vote on a potential vaccine mandate is likely at the end of March.
According to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Germany and Austria had higher immunization rates than the European Union average of 70.4 percent with two shots. However, their immunization rates of 74% and 72.7 percent, respectively, have not assuaged health officials' fears.
Legislation requiring immunizations for healthcare workers to begin in March has already been passed.
After Italy, Germany has Europe's second-oldest population. On January 28, German Health Minister and Epidemiologist Karl Lauterbach issued a warning that the elderly needed to be protected because many of them are still unvaccinated.
He went on to say that there are four times as many unvaccinated Germans as there are in the United Kingdom, and three times as many unvaccinated Germans as there are in Italy.
At the same press briefing, Lothar Wieler, the chairman of Germany's infectious diseases organization, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), warned that as Covid-19 infections reached record highs, hospitals and intensive care units are starting to fill up again.
On Thursday, the country reported a total of 236,120 new cases, which is a new high.
Vaccinations are not required, and there are no restrictions.
Despite an increase in instances caused by the Omicron version, some European governments are removing Covid-19 laws as mandates become more stringent.
Vaccines, according to many of their leaders, have broken the link between infections and serious illness.
Despite rising cases, Denmark, where 81.5 percent of the population is double-jabbed, abolished all Covid-19 restrictions on Tuesday.
"At the same time that infection rates are rising, the number of patients admitted to intensive care units is decreasing," Sren Brostrm, director-general of Denmark's Health Authority, told CNN. "Right now, there are about 30 persons with a Covid-19 diagnosis in ICU beds out of a population of 6 million."
Other Nordic countries, like Norway, Sweden, and Finland, announced the lifting of many of their Covid control measures this week, pointing to their highly vaccinated populations and low hospitalization figures.
