Austria will begin enforcing a broad vaccine mandate on February 1, making it one of the few countries in the world to do much so far.
Vienna, Austria:
After a weekend of violence against viral controls rocked several towns across the continent, Austria returned to a temporary lockdown in the most dramatic Covid-19 restrictions seen in Western Europe in months.
The Alpine nation will also begin enforcing a wide vaccine mandate on February 1, making it one of the locations in the world to do so thus far.
On Monday, shops, restaurants, and festive markets were closed, and its 8.9 million residents were not permitted to leave the house except for work, essential shopping, and exercise due to an increase in viral cases.
There is no distance learning available during the three-week lockdown, schools and kindergartens remain open. Parents have been encouraged to keep their children at home as much as possible.
Kathrin Pauser, a parent, said she was still dropping her kids, ages nine and eleven, to school, despite the fact that both had recently been vaccinated.
She told AFP, “It’s a very difficult position.”
‘Dictatorship’
The actions follow a weekend of violent clashes in numerous European countries, notably Belgium and the Netherlands, in which tens of thousands of people came to the streets to protest Covid’s actions.
Over three days of violence caused by a Covid curfew, 145 people were arrested in the Netherlands, while police in Brussels deployed water cannon and tear gas at demonstration police estimated drew 35,000 people on Sunday.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte slammed “violence under the name of protest” on Monday, adding that while he supported the right to peacefully protest, he “would never accept that fools employ pure violence.”
Around 1,000 people protested the government’s intentions to reintroduce the Covid pass for civil personnel in Denmark this weekend.
“People want to live,” said Joost Eras, one of the protest organizers in the Netherlands. “It’s for that reason that we’ve come.”
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