Austrian parliament votes on compulsory Covid vaccinations for adults

Austria's parliament was debating on Thursday a proposal to make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for adults, with Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein defending the jabs as an act of solidarity.

"The more people get vaccinated against Covid-19, fewer will die from the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic," the minister said at the start of session in the lower house of parliament.

A clear majority is expected to support the legislation. The law would come into force at the beginning of February.

Opposition leader and epidemiologist Pamela Rendi-Wagner backed the plan. "Vaccination save lives, your own and the lives of others," the Social Democrat said.

Ahead of the vote, the country's conservative-green coalition government announced a number of sweeteners to the legislative package.

A total of around 1 billion euros (1.1 billion dollars) is to be made available for a variety of schemes aimed at incentivizing and rewarding vaccinations. These include a lottery awarding 500 euros in vouchers valid in shops and restaurants to roughly every tenth person who gets jabbed.

To incentivize higher vaccination uptake, communities with a vaccination rate of 80 per cent will have 75 million euros distributed by the lottery, while a community with a 90 per cent rate will receive 300 million euros.

"I am really happy to be able to decide on the subject of incentives in parliament today in addition to the subject of compulsory vaccination," said Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Thursday morning.

As well as the conservative Austrian People's Party and the Greens, who together form Austria's coalition government, many lawmakers from the opposition Social Democrats and the liberal NEOS support the bill.

The far-right Freedom Party of Austria has fiercely criticized the plan, however.

Compulsory vaccination is to apply to all adults in Austria, with exceptions planned for pregnant women and those unable to be vaccinated for medical reasons.

The Bundesrat, the upper house of the Austrian parliament, is expected to approve the law on February 3.

Nevertheless, the new law remains controversial and tens of thousands of people already regularly demonstrate against the government's coronavirus measures and the prospect of compulsory vaccination.

Compulsory vaccination is expected to significantly reduce the impact of future coronavirus waves and economically-ruinous lockdowns.

Source: DPA

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