To break the dynamics of contaminations, the inhabitants of two Länder are expected to stay at home for a period of “two or three weeks”. Greens argue for the extension of the measurement to the whole country.
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The “containment of the non-vaccinated” has made long fire, here is the return of the traditional confinement. In a panic, two Austrian regions particularly affected by the fourth wave of COVID-19 announced, Thursday, November 18, which they would reintroduce a general confinement of their population next week, a first in Europe since the spring. “The dynamics of contamination is not careable,” justified Wilfried Haslauer, governor (Austrian Popular Party, ÖVP, Conservative) of the Land of Salzburg, where the seven-day incidence rate exceeded 1,700 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
As in the neighboring Upper Austria, this new confinement should “last three or four weeks minimum”, with the hope of reopening “for Christmas”. On the model of preceding confines in the Alpine Republic, no travel certificate will be necessary, but the inhabitants are called upon to stay at home except to go to work or make their essential purchases. They will also keep the right to take the air. All non-essential businesses, starting with restaurants and hotels, will be closed. Both regions also require parents to withdraw their children from schools by brandishing considerable contamination rates for young people. “We have an incidence rate of 4,500 in children under 10, they are contaminating and bringing the virus at home!” Haslauer denounced.
This decision of the Salzburg region and Upper Austria could be extended Friday to the whole country, at the request of many experts, and ecologists who sit on the government. It is only four days after the entry into force of the “containment of non-vaccinated” Austrian innovation that should both push reluctant to be vaccinated and reduced contamination. Difficult to control and de facto little applied, the measure has been criticized from all sides in recent days: by the extreme right for its discriminating side, and the left and the ecologists who considered him insufficient in the face of the ascending curve of people hospitalized in intensive care. The two regions, which have the highest proportion of non-vaccinated in the country, already have a longer occupancy rate than last winter.
Vaccinal Failed
Under the pressure of the measurements and the epidemic, the number of vaccinated has changed slightly in recent days, but it is always just in the European average, with 65.6% of the entire population having received two doses, against 74.9% in France. “We can not wait until the measures produce effects,” said Haslauer, in the unison of the experts who believe that the progress of the vaccine campaign will eventually feel too late to stop the current wave. Austria is still debating how to force its health personnel to be vaccinated, a taboo in this country where children are not subject to any vaccination obligation and where the extreme right holds an antivax speech.
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