The committee of the Austrian National Council, the body charged with making decisions regarding the country’s lockdown measures, has extended it until January 10th.
The decision, which was widely expected, means those who are not vaccinated or who have not recently recovered from the virus will need to continue to comply with the stay-at-home order.
As reported by Austrian newspaper Heute, “it is now becoming more and more apparent that unvaccinated people will be locked down until vaccination is compulsory”.
Most mainstream Austrian political parties supported the extension, with only the Austrian Freedom Party and the Neos voting against it.
The government justified the extension of the measures on the basis of concern surrounding the Omicron Covid variant.
New Year’s Eve exception
The committee however passed an exception for New Year’s Eve.
On both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, unvaccinated people are allowed to take part in gatherings with a limit of ten people (regardless of the others’ vaccination statuses).
Covid-19: What are the rules for New Year’s Eve in Austria?
The stay-at-home order will again be put in place from midnight on New Year’s Day.
Children under 12 are excluded from the restrictions and do not count towards the tallies.
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How do concerns surrounding Omicron possibly justify this insanity? And what is the scientific justification for locking down a healthy unvaccinated teenager for Omicron? The data indicates Omicron is freely spreading amongst the vaccinated. Yesterday’s Robert Koch Institute report states that 95.58% of Omicron cases in Germany are fully vaccinated. 4.42% are in unvaccinated individuals. Austrian politicians need to try to keep up and be decent and reasonable humans.