Austria has imposed on Sunday a nationwide lockdown for people who did not receive their full vaccination against COVID-19.
The move aimed at slowing the fast spread of the disease in the country. The move went into effect at midnight on Sunday.
The new measure prohibits unvaccinated individuals older than age 12 from leaving their homes except for basic activities such as working, grocery shopping, going for a walk or getting vaccinated.
The lockdown will affects about 2 million people in the country of 8.9 million people.
“It’s our job as the government of Austria to protect the people,” Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said.
“Therefore we decided that starting Monday … there will be a lockdown for the unvaccinated.”
Europe is facing 500,000 more Covid deaths by February, World Health Organisation (WHO) warns.
The agency also sounded alarm over a surge in cases and bemoaned stuttering vaccination rollouts on parts of the continent.
And in a dire new warning, WHO regional director Hans Kluge said the pace of transmission across the region was of “grave concern.”
“We are, once again, at the epicenter,” Kluge said in a statement.
“According to one reliable projection, if we stay on this trajectory, we could see another half a million COVID-19 deaths in Europe and Central Asia by the first of February next year,” he warned, adding that 43 of the 53 countries on his patch could also see high or extreme stress on hospital beds.
The WHO has earlier warned that a new coronavirus “variant of interest” named Mu, also known by its scientific name as B.1.621.
