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ARCHIVED - EU countries ramp up Covid requirements with mandatory jabs and passports
In Austria, vaccinations will be mandatory for all adults while France has extended the use of the Covid passport
Even though experts across the globe are predicting that the sixth wave of the pandemic should peak in the coming weeks, France and Austria are not resting on their laurels and have instead decided to move restrictions up a gear in order to encourage more people to get vaccinated against Covid.
Once the decree is put to a vote on Thursday January 20, Austria is set to become the first country in the EU to impose mandatory vaccinations on all adults. From February 1, police officers will patrol the streets checking if citizens are vaccinated and while prison sentences won’t be handed down, the fines for noncompliance are expected to range anywhere from 600 to 3,600 euros.
The only exemption will be for pregnant women and people who can’t be jabbed for medical reasons; those who have recently recovered from Covid will have an extra six months to get vaccinated.
Announcing the controversial measures Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer insisted that this “is not a fight between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated,” but rather about fighting for the “common good.”
Austria is one of the EU countries with the lowest vaccination rate. On Saturday January 15, some 27,000 people demonstrated in Vienna against vaccination and several protesters were arrested for using Nazi salutes and refusing to wear masks.
Covid passports in France
France has also tightened up its safety measures by only awarding Covid passports to people who have had three Covid vaccines (two if the person has recovered from Covid). These certs are required for entry into entertainment venues and sports stadiums and it will no longer be sufficient to show a recent negative test, or even two vaccines.
The changes have dealt yet another hammer blow to tennis star Novac Djokovic who has been banned from playing Roland Garros unless he gets jabbed.
With the Omicron variant causing more than 300,000 cases each day in France and the vast majority of seriously ill Covid patients being unvaccinated, President Macron said last week that his goal is to “piss off” those who choose not to be immunised.
This appears to be working as several small protests surfaced against the measure over the weekend and the socialist deputies intend to appeal to the Constitutional Court to “guarantee fundamental freedoms” which could delay its implementation for several days.
According to official figures, some 4.9 million French people who can be vaccinated refuse protection, which represents 7.3% of the national population (about 67 million).
Image: Archive
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