Covid-19: Austria abandons compulsory vaccination
Austria ends compulsory vaccination.
(Illustrative Image) AP - Alastair Grant
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
Austria announced on Thursday that it would abandon its compulsory vaccination policy against Covid-19.
This controversial law came into force last February but was suspended a month later.
Advertising
Read more
With our correspondent in Vienna
,
Isaure Hiace
By proclaiming the abandonment of
compulsory vaccination
, the Austrian government announces the end of a measure which will never have really served.
In November 2021, as the epidemic situation deteriorates rapidly, the government announced that from February, Austrians over the age of 18 must be vaccinated, under penalty of fines ranging from 600 to 3,600 euros.
The law,
unprecedented in Europe,
provoked major demonstrations.
The government maintained its legislation and it came into force in February.
The first fines were scheduled for mid-March, but the government decided in early March to suspend the law, arguing that the epidemic situation no longer made it necessary.
“
We now have to live with the Covid”
She had since been dormant.
It will now be completely abandoned, as the government announced on Thursday.
The Minister of Health, Johannes Rauch, admitted that it had not proven its effectiveness and that it had, moreover, created deep fractures in society.
“
We now have to live with Covid, so we are going to implement a series of measures, which means the end of compulsory vaccination
,” Johannes Rauch told a press conference in Vienna.
“
This
vaccination obligation
does not encourage anyone to get vaccinated.
Polls have shown that 13% of people living in Austria will not get vaccinated despite the obligation
,” Johannes Rauch told a press conference.
He therefore appeals to the individual responsibility of the Austrians.
62% of them have, to date, a valid vaccination certificate.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
Austria
Coronavirus
Vaccines