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Police on lockdown patrol in Vienna (archive image)
Photo: Thomas Kronsteiner / Getty Images
2G rules already apply nationwide in Austria.
For unvaccinated people, the measures will soon be tightened.
"It is already clear that this winter and Christmas will be uncomfortable for the unvaccinated," said Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg.
In view of the dynamics of the fourth corona wave, it may only be a matter of a few days before unvaccinated people would have to live with massive exit restrictions.
He called the vaccination rate of around 65 percent "embarrassingly low" and again asked the Austrians to get vaccinated.
Seven-day incidence is 751
The number of new corona infections in Austria has risen to a record high. The authorities recorded 11,975 cases within 24 hours. Converted to the number of inhabitants, this corresponds to a value of around 100,000 cases in Germany. The seven-day incidence per 100,000 inhabitants in Austria rose to 751, three times as high as the value in Germany. The situation in the clinics continued to worsen. Doctors and nurses are alarmed because of the low capacity in intensive care units.
The opposition SPÖ demanded the immediate release of a booster vaccination after four months.
The government's crisis management is a disaster, said SPÖ leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner.
An attempt by Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) to enforce a regional lockdown for unvaccinated people, at least in the particularly affected federal states of Upper Austria and Salzburg, failed on Thursday evening due to the resistance of the respective regional leaders.
How difficult it is to implement a lockdown is shown by a statement by Salzburg's Prime Minister Wilfried Haslauer (ÖVP).
It is clear that the virologists would like to lock people up in a room, he said.
"Only: Then they would die of depression or starve or die of thirst."
muk / dpa
