Austria officials, will from today, Saturday, February 5, 2022, vaccinate Austrians over the age of 18 against COVID-19 or face the possibility of a heavy fine, an unprecedented measure in the European Union.

The new measure, adopted on January 20, 2022, by Parliament, was signed into law by President Alexander Van der Bellen, in the face of the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, marking the conclusion of a process that began in November 2021.

The government decided to pursue its new tougher approach despite criticisms within the country.

“No other country in Europe is following us on compulsory vaccines,” said Manuel Krautgartner, who has campaigned against the new approach.

In neighbouring Germany, a similar law championed by the new Social Democrat Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was debated last month (January) in the Bundestag (Lower House of Parliament) but has not made progress yet due to divisions within the political class.

Checks from mid-March

Despite the threat of such a drastic measure, the vaccination rate in Austria has still failed to take off, weakening below the levels seen in France or Spain.

Vienna vaccination centres remain relatively quiet.

“We are far from reaching maximum capacity, things are completely stagnating,” according to Stefanie Kurzweil, a humanitarian association, Arbeiter Samariter Bund.

Melanie, a 23-year-old waitress who preferred not to give her second name at the centre (Arbeiter Samariter Bund) to get her booster jab, said she was mainly there to avoid ending up “locked up at home”.

Non-vaccinated people are currently excluded from restaurants, sports and cultural venues.

But from now on they will also be subject to fines, which Melanie said was “unhealthy”.

The law applies to all adult residents with the exception of pregnant women, those who have contracted the virus within the past 180 days and those with medical exemptions.

Checks will begin from mid-March, 2022, with sanctions ranging from 600 to 3,600 Euros ($690-$4,100). They will, however, be lifted if the person fined gets vaccinated within two weeks.

Protect against new variants

Waiting in the queue, others say they are in favour of vaccination for all.

“We would have finished a long time ago (with the pandemic) if everyone had been vaccinated”, a legal worker, Angelika Altmann said.

More than 60 percent of Austrians support the measure, according to a recent survey, but large swathes of the population remain strongly opposed.

After the announcement of the new law, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against what they regarded as a radical and draconian policy.

Critics have also questioned the need for compulsion given the far milder nature of the Omicron variant.

Conservative Chancellor, Karl Nehammer, leading the Alpine country with the environmentalist Greens, also announced at the same time, a relaxation of earlier COVID-19 restrictions.

But for Health Minister, Wolfgang Mueckstein, compulsory vaccination is aimed at both protecting the country against new waves and fighting new variants.

Vaccination passes are now a reality in an increasing number of countries for certain professions or activities.

In Ecuador, it is compulsory, including for children over the age of five, which is a world-first decision taken on behalf of teenagers.

Before that, two authoritarian states in Central Asia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, mandated vaccination, of which less than half their population got vaccinated.