Austria to go full coronavirus lockdown as of Monday

By Askin Kiyagan

VIENNA (AA) - Austria will impose a national lockdown as of Monday due to surges in coronavirus cases in the country.

Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said at a news conference on Friday that the lockdown would last for a maximum of 20 days.

Schallenberg also announced that the country will make vaccination compulsory as of Feb. 1, 2022.

According to Schallenberg, although recent measures increased daily vaccinations, it was not enough.

The move came days after Austria announced that will impose a curfew on those who are not fully vaccinated.

For his part, Health Minister Wolfgang Muckstein noted that the curfew is necessary to break the fourth wave, adding everyone will be subject to the curfew, which will be applied all day, except for some conditions.

Muckstein pointed out that the rate of people who had been vaccinated should increase; therefore, they decided to impose mandatory vaccination.

According to the US-based Johns Hopkins University on Friday, the country confirmed over 1 million cases and more than 11,900 deaths from the virus.

Germany put Austria back in the "high risk" country category due to the rise in infections.