Within Europe, Austria is an outlier, although a majority of EU countries use a vaccine pass or health pass to restrict the non-vaccinated from entry into venues such as restaurants, concerts and even shops.

These schemes have different names across Europe, but vary between health passes which allow holders to show a negative test result to gain entry and vaccine passes for which only vaccination proof (and in some cases proof of recent recovery from the virus) is valid.

Vaccine passes

In Italy, a vaccine pass is required to access hotels, restaurants, gyms and even public transport, with no option to take a test instead. From Monday January 24th France will require proof of vaccination or recovery for long-distance travel and access to restaurants, cafes, museums, cinemas and sports venues. Switzerland requires vaccine passes for indoor events, restaurants and cultural venues.

Similar passes are used in other countries outside Europe too, for example in Israel, Morocco, South Africa and several parts of Brazil.

Mandates by profession

Vaccine mandates for members of some professions exist or are planned in a few European countries, with Italy, Belgium, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia and the UK requiring healthcare workers to get the jab, and some of those countries extending the mandate to other professions too. 

In Austria’s neighbour Hungary, all public sector workers are covered by a vaccine mandate and private companies have the option to require the vaccine. Latvia requires MPs to get the vaccine, and private employers can also dismiss workers who refuse to get vaccinated. And Poland is expected to pass a mandate for healthcare workers, teachers and the police.

The Czech Republic scrapped its own plans to require the jab for healthcare workers, with the government saying it did not want to exacerbate divisions.

Mandates by age

Some other countries have made Covid-19 vaccination compulsory only for certain age groups, focusing on the elderly who are more vulnerable to serious illness from the virus.

That includes Italy, which in January made the vaccine compulsory for over-50s and the penalty is a €100 fine, described by the ministry as a “one-off”. It was already compulsory for several professions including healthcare staff, police, teachers and emergency services workers.

Greece has set the age limit for compulsory jabs higher at 60, and since January has begun fining those in this age group who are unvaccinated, with €100 fines that can be issued monthly (adding up to a potential €12,000 per year). The government has also said it is considering extending the mandate to all over-50s.

That makes the fines in these countries significantly lower than those in Austria, where people who refuse to get the vaccine face fines of €600 which can be issued up to four times a year to a total of €24,000, but which could rise to €3,600 at a time if they refuse to pay the initial fine. The government has said people’s personal financial situation will be taken into account in setting the fine, and no fines will be issued until mid-March.

The Czech Republic had also planned to require vaccinations by law for over-60s, but this was overturned in January.

As with vaccine passes, vaccine mandates limited by age or profession are also in force in several countries outside Europe, though mandates linked to occupation are significantly more widespread than those linked to age, usually focusing on healthcare workers and state employees.

General mandates

Austria is unique within the EU in making the vaccine mandatory for all adults, though the Vatican City has mandated the jab for all its employees and visitors to Vatican museums.

And Austria may soon be joined by Germany, with politicians set to vote on making Covid-19 vaccination mandatory in March. It is possible that if passed, the bill may be modified to apply only to older residents.

Further afield, a small number of countries have brought in general vaccine mandates for the whole adult population, like Austria.

Those include Ecuador, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Indonesia, French territory New Caledonia and Micronesia.

Note: This is not a comprehensive list, but an overview of the situation. All information was correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication.