Win 500 euro vouchers
Vienna attracts people who want to be vaccinated with a lottery
01/20/2022, 12:08 p.m
With a mixture of carrot and stick, the Austrian government is trying to increase the country’s vaccination rate. So she decides today the controversial vaccination law. At the same time, there are also financial incentives for those who have been vaccinated and those who want to be vaccinated.
In Austria, the conservative-green government has put together an incentive package worth billions to increase the vaccination rate in addition to compulsory vaccination for adults. In a vaccination fleet, participants who have already been vaccinated and those who are just getting vaccinated can win vouchers worth 500 euros, said Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) before the start of the National Council session, where the controversial mandatory vaccination law is to be voted on.
The vouchers should be redeemable at Austrian companies. According to Nehammer, an incentive package with a total volume of up to 1.4 billion euros was put together. Municipalities with a vaccination rate of 80 percent should also receive financial grants. “The vaccination rate is not high enough,” said the conservative politician. “Duty is one thing, reward and incentive another”. According to the Ministry of Social Affairs, 6.4 million people (71.8 percent of the total population) currently have a valid vaccination certificate.
The law is polarizing in the country with almost nine million inhabitants. New infections jumped to a record 27,677 cases the previous day. Despite the high incidence of infection, the situation in the hospitals is largely stable. Nehammer conceded that the Omikron variant should be evaluated differently than the Delta variant. Nevertheless, the government wants to be the first country in the EU to introduce general vaccination requirements for adults over the age of 18 from February.
Parliament will vote on the law on compulsory vaccination this Thursday. Pregnant women and people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons and those who have recovered are exempt from the law for six months. There should be controls from mid-March. Those who refuse to vaccinate face penalties of between 600 and up to 3600 euros.
The decision is considered a mere formality, since a simple majority of the governing parties ÖVP and Greens is sufficient. But there is also approval from the majority of the opposition – the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the liberal Neos. Only the right-wing populist FPÖ rejects compulsory vaccination.