UIn order to delay the spread of the Omikron variant in Austria as much as possible, the government in Vienna has issued stricter entry regulations for a short time, which will apply from this Monday. Then, without a quarantine obligation, only those who have been fully vaccinated or recovered and who also have either a booster vaccination or a negative PCR test are allowed to enter.
Exceptions apply to pregnant women and children under the age of 12 as well as people who cannot tolerate a vaccination for health reasons, as do commuters. With this, Austria is reacting to concerns about a fifth “Omikron wave”.
New corona committee
Austria was the first European country to impose a lockdown in the fourth corona wave, which ended on Sunday with the reopening of restaurants across the country. However, there are further restrictions, especially for those who have not been vaccinated. In order to better coordinate measures to combat pandemics and advice in the future, the Christian Democratic-Green government under the new Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) has set up a new body.
It has a dual leadership with the Chief Medical Officer (“Chief Medical Officer” Katharina Reich) for medical aspects and the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces (Major General Rudolf Striedinger) for logistics. The committee called “Gecko” has no decision-making powers, as Nehammer and Minister of Health Wolfgang Mückstein said, but should advise and support the operational work.
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The tightening of entry has met with criticism, especially from representatives of the interests of winter tourism. The ÖVP member of the National Council, Franz Hörl, who represents the cable car companies, described them as “completely unrelated to practice”, especially for guests with a long journey. Anyone who enters the country without a current, 72-hour valid PCR test must have registered before entering the country despite the required 2-G verification and must be in self-isolation in the quarter.
Then the PCR test can be done in Austria so that you are “free-tested” after a negative result is available. Austrians, EU and EEA citizens and people residing in Austria can also enter the country without a vaccination certificate or health certificate, whereby registration is also required. You must then immediately go into a ten-day quarantine. There is a possibility of early free testing from the fifth day.
Opponents of the restrictions and the compulsory vaccination planned for February protested again on Saturday in Vienna and other cities, but in far fewer numbers than in the previous weeks, when tens of thousands took to the streets. Demonstrations in city centers and in important shopping streets had been banned so that the businessmen, who were already damaged by the repeated lockdown, would not steal customers at least on the fourth weekend in Advent; some previous organizers (such as the right-wing party FPÖ) had decided not to call for a demo.
Nevertheless, a few hundred radical demonstrators broke the police barriers in Vienna and apparently moved through the shopping streets in a targeted manner. There were seven arrests and more than a hundred reports, one police officer was injured.