It’s official, Austrians over the age of 18 must now be vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk a heavy fine, an unprecedented measure in the European Union.
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The law, adopted on January 20 by Parliament, entered into force on Saturday, the culmination of a process started in November in the face of the meteoric spread of the pandemic.
The government has decided to opt for the hard way despite the criticism, standing out from its European partners.
“No other country in Europe is following us on the compulsory vaccine”, denounces Manuel Krautgartner, who has engaged in politics against health rules in Linz (north).
In neighboring Germany, a similar project, championed by the new Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, began to be debated on January 26 in the Bundestag. But it has fallen behind amid divisions within the political class.
Despite this drastic measure, the vaccination rate has hardly taken off in Austria, still falling below the levels observed in France or Spain – around 70% of the population.
In a vaccination center in Vienna, which has taken up residence since the end of November in the premises of an Art Deco swimming pool to combine business with pleasure, several dozen people are waiting.
The humanitarian association Arbeiter Samariter Bund, responsible for supervising the operations, has noted a tremor in recent days. “We recorded a small increase of around 9% compared to last week,” manager Michael Hausmann told AFP.
Among the 7,000 injections administered on average daily in Vienna, only 10% are “primo-vaccinated”, he specifies.
Erika Viskancove, a 33-year-old accountant, came to receive her third dose: “I sincerely believe that the law is the best way” to overcome the pandemic, she confides.
Melanie, who did not wish to give her last name, did not choose the injection out of conviction: “I did not want to stay locked up at home”, explains this 23-year-old waitress met by AFP .
All adult residents are affected by the text of the law, with the exception of pregnant women, those who contracted the virus less than 180 days ago and finally those who can be exempted for medical reasons.
The checks, however, will not begin until mid-March, sanctions may then be applied, for an amount varying from 600 to 3600 euros, but they will be lifted if the offender complies within two weeks.
A “soft” method which risks not being “very effective”, reacts Gerhard Kammer, a 65-year-old technician.
Himself favorable to the law which “protects us all as a community”, he thinks that a “certain number, even a large part” of the anti-vax “will pay and not be vaccinated”.