Chancellor Karl Nehammer said the end of the lockdown will
be a “opening with a seatbelt,” meaning some measures — such as an obligation
to wear masks on public transportation and inside stores and public spaces —
will stay in place also for people who are vaccinated or have recovered from
COVID-19. There will also be an 11 p.m. curfew for restaurants and limits on
the number of people attending cultural events.
Stricter measures can be implemented independently by
regions that are especially affected by the pandemic, Nehammer said.
Nehammer stressed that unvaccinated people could end their
lockdowns immediately by getting the jab, but also acknowledged that “it still
takes a lot of convincing to get those to where they haven’t even been vaccinated
yet.”
“The lockdown for the unvaccinated continues. I also
understand that the people who are affected by it feel aggrieved,” Nehammer
told reporters in Vienna. “At the same time, there is the offer of science,
that by getting vaccinated these troubles can be quickly put aside and that
then common freedom can actually be lived together.”
Austria has a relatively low vaccination rate for Western
Europe, with just 67.7% of the population fully vaccinated. Tens of thousands
have protested across the Alpine nation in recent weeks against the lockdown
and the upcoming vaccine mandate.
The government announced last month that it would implement
a vaccine mandate early next year and said Wednesday that details about the
compulsory vaccinations will be presented later this week.
Under the lockdown, which started on Nov. 22, people were
allowed to leave their homes only for specific reasons, including buying
groceries, going to the doctor or exercising. Day care centers and schools
remained open for those who need them, but parents were asked to keep children
at home if possible.
The country’s seven-day infection rate declined by about
half during the lockdown. It stood at 535.6 cases per 100,000 residents on
Tuesday, down from more than 1,100 on the day the lockdown started.
Nehammer was sworn in Monday as Austria’s third chancellor
in two months, capping a round of upheaval triggered by the decision last week
of Sebastian Kurz, the country’s dominant political figure of recent years, to
bow out of politics.
Nehammer, 49, has been Austria’s interior minister since
early 2020. He also is taking over as leader of the conservative Austrian
People’s Party, which Kurz led to election victories in 2017 and 2019. -AP
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