Here You Come Again
Austria's fourth national lockdown began at midnight on Monday after its 'lockdown for the unvaccinated' failed to immediately bring down active case numbers
Servus!
On the night of Sunday, November 14—the day parliament rubber-stamped an ordinance imposing a lockdown on Austria’s 1.6 million unvaccinated adults—the country’s health minister Wolfgang Mückstein appeared on the late-night news at 10pm and floated the idea of a nightly curfew for the vaccinated as one of the additional measures that could be required to bring the fourth wave of the pandemic under control. The following morning, chancellor Alexander Schallenberg brought his health minister into line: “We want to get the unvaccinated vaccinated rather than lock up the vaccinated,” Schallenberg clarified.
The government’s paramount goal in imposing a lockdown for the unvaccinated, as I wrote to you in last week’s newsletter, was to tighten the screw on the unvaxxed as to bring the vaccination rate up as fast as possible. This, in turn, would bring active case numbers down—at least in the medium- and long-term. In the short term, though, vaccination would do little to break the fourth wave, one which had filled the intensive care wards in the state of Salzburg with COVID-19 patients and forced health authorities there to postpone vital operations and consider introducing triage.
The Tuesday of last week, November 16, was the worst day of the pandemic in Austria to date in terms of new active case numbers. 16,631 COVID-19 cases were recorded in a single day in a country of 8.9 million people. By Thursday, November 18, the seven-day incidence rate per 100,000 people nationally had topped 1,000. In Salzburg and Upper Austria, that rate went north of 1,500, and in particular districts in those states such as Braunau am Inn, Ried im Innkreis, and Schärding, the rate is now more than 2,000. The lockdown for the unvaccinated did not, as the government had naively hoped, reduce person-to-person contact enough to bring about an immediate impact on active case numbers.
There is a particular pattern to the introduction of new coronavirus countermeasures in Austria, and it was not long into last week that, through the media, the government began to send up trial balloons indicating that a fourth national lockdown might be necessary in order to definitively break the fourth wave. Last Tuesday night, Heute first reported a lockdown was on the agenda for a summit on Friday held between chancellor Schallenberg and the governors of Austria’s nine states, all of whom had to buy into a lockdown in order to make it work.
On Thursday, Schallenberg and the governors gathered at Lake Achen, the largest lake in Tyrol due north of the town of Jenbach. Prior, it had already been made public that Salzburg and Upper Austria—whose governors had met with health minister Mückstein on Wednesday—would go into lockdown. The question was, Would the country go with them? Burgenland governor Hans Peter Doskozil and Carinthia governor Peter Kaiser—Social Democrats both—let it be known that they recognized an obligation to show “solidarity” with the afflicted, People’s Party (ÖVP)-run states. Another Social Democrat, Vienna mayor Michael Ludwig, said although his city had the lowest case numbers per head in the country, Vienna couldn’t “cut itself off” from the horror show unfolding in the west of the country.
The chancellor wanted a lockdown. The governors were agreed on its necessity. The two sides came together Thursday evening and negotiated the lockdown’s finer points until 3 am on Friday morning. Shortly after 10 am, chancellor Schallenberg stepped before the cameras and, somewhat apologetically, confirmed that which we already knew: at midnight on Monday, November 22, Austria would go back into lockdown. A 24-hour curfew with limited exemptions would apply to everyone for at least 10 but no more than 20 days. All businesses bar essential retail would be forced to close. Employees would be encouraged to work from home. And all that was once old hat suddenly seemed new again.1
Bis bald!
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Vaccine Mandate
Austria is to become the first country in Europe to impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on the general population. The obligation to be vaccinated would come into effect on February 1, 2022, chancellor Schallenberg said Friday.
Vaccine Denial
Two people landed themselves in hospital in Styria last week after self-medicating against COVID-19 using the horse de-worming agent ivermectin. The drug has been promoted in Austria by far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Herbert Kickl.
Vaccine Lottery
Austria’s public broadcaster, the ORF, has launched a vaccination lottery. Anyone who has received either their first, second, or third COVID-19 shots in October, November, or December can enter. Prizes include a house, an electric car, and a new kitchen.
This article previously said Austrian schools had gone remote as part of lockdown rules. Austrian schools in fact remain open, though parents have the option to keep their children at home and receive instruction remotely.