Austria Threatens to Put Unvaccinated Residents on Lockdown as Coronavirus Cases Spike

Austria’s Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Friday, Oct. 22, 2021. European Union leaders conclude a two-day summit on Friday in which they discuss issues such as climate change, the energy crisis, COVID-19 developments and migration. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)

Austria has laid out a framework for potential new lockdown measures to apply only to unvaccinated people, as Covid-19 inoculations lag and cases rise sharply.

“I will do everything I can to ensure that the health system in this country does not reach its limit and is not overloaded because we have too many procrastinators,” Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said in a statement Saturday.

If the number of Covid patients in intensive care units hits 500, or 25% of the country’s capacity, unvaccinated people would be barred from hotels and restaurants.

If ICU capacity reaches one-third, or 600 units, a lockdown would go into effect for the unvaccinated, who would only be allowed to leave their homes for certain reasons.

Some 220 ICU beds are currently occupied, well below levels hit in the spring. But they’ve risen steadily since the summer.

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SOURCE: Bloomberg, Eyk Henning