Public officials in parts of Europe are starting to impose new restrictions on their populations amid another wave of coronavirus infections. However, this time the restrictions are just for the unvaccinated.
On Monday, Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg imposed a ten day lockdown period for all unvaccinated citizens aged 12 years and older in effort to increase the nation's vaccination rate, which remains at 65%.
Only vaccinated people and those who have recently recovered from COVID--meaning they have some level of immunity--can go out to restaurants, movie theaters, sporting facilities, and other public venues and events, according to the new mandate.
Unvaccinated people in Austria will be allow to leave their homes only for work, essential shopping or emergencies. Moreover, proof of vaccination or COVID recovery/negative diagnostic tests is now also regularly required at workplaces.
Austria plans to dispatch police to conduct spot checks of digital vaccine certificates on the public.
"We really didn't take this step lightly, and I don't think it should be talked down," Schallenberg told Ö1 radio, quoted by NPR. "What we are trying is precisely to reduce contact between the unvaccinated and vaccinated to a minimum, and also contact between the unvaccinated."
Beyond Austria, Germany has imposed a similar lockdown in its capital, Berlin, allowing only fully vaccinated citizens or those who recently recovered from COVID infection to enter indoor public venues. The country is also reversing its recent decision to no longer provide free COVID diagnostic testing in order to better combat its latest infection wave.
Germany's vaccination rate is similar to Austria's at 68%, which outpaces the United States' percentage of 58.9%, but falls behind rates of other European Union nations, as well as the United Kingdom, according to NPR. However, only about 40% of the world's population is fully vaccinated, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently published a study that concluded that unvaccinated people are five times more likely than the vaccinated to get infected with COVID and 10 times more likely to die of their infection.