MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Austria backtracks on mandatory vaccination against COVID-19

“We do not see the need for mandatory vaccination at this time,” Edtstadler explained

The Government of Austria has suspended the enforcement of legislation making vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory for all residents over 18 years of age in this country of 8.9 million inhabitants, it was reported Wednesday.

In fact, the previous announcement on the Social Affairs Ministry's webpage stating that “To successfully combat the Corona pandemic and protect the Austrian health care system, a high vaccination coverage rate is necessary. Therefore, a general COVID-19 vaccination obligation will apply in Austria from February” is no longer to be found. Instead, an “Error 404” message appears.

The government announced the suspension of the law one month after it came into force: “We have decided to follow the advice of the expert commission,” and “suspend” the text, which is not “proportionate” to the dangerousness of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, Federal Minister for the EU and the Constitution at the Federal Chancellery Karoline Edtstadler announced during a press conference in Vienna.

“We do not see the need for mandatory vaccination at this time, given the current variant,” which causes less severe symptoms than the previous dominant variant, Delta, she explained.

“There are currently many arguments to say that this violation of fundamental rights is not justified,” added Edtstadler.

The law came into force Feb. 5, drawing strong opposition from a large part of the population of 8.9 million who saw their fundamental rights challenged.

Vaccination was mandatory for all residents over 18 years of age, with the exception of pregnant women, as well as those who contracted the virus less than 180 days ago and those exempted for other medical reasons.

Penalties were to be imposed starting in mid-March. They consisted of fines between € 600 and € 3,600 ($650 to $3,900).

Over 15,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Austria since the beginning of the pandemic.