November 18, 2021: -Austria has imposed new lockdown measures on nearly 2 million unvaccinated people, with individuals facing fines if they fail to comply with the rules.

Since Monday, those who are not fully vaccinated against Covid-19 have been back under lockdown, with federal police stopping people in public places to check their vaccination status.

Unvaccinated people who breach the lockdown rules have to undergo fines of nearly 500 euros, and those who refuse to comply with vaccination status checks will have to pay 1,450 euros.

The new restrictions apply to everyone over the age of 12 who has not had two vaccine doses. People who have recovered from the virus are exempt from the limits.

Full proof of vaccination is needed to visit public places like restaurants, hair salons, and Christmas markets. In Vienna, children more than six will need to show a negative Covid test result to enter these public places.

Only immunizations approved by Europe’s medical regulator – the Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna vaccines – will be accepted by Austrian authorities to prove vaccination status. Immunization dramatically reduces the risk of hospitalization and death.

Over the weekend, new virus cases in Austria reached an all-time high of 13,152 in a single day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. On Monday, 11,889, the country recorded the latest infections.

Almost 65% of Austria’s population is completely vaccinated, giving the country the second-lowest vaccination rate in Western Europe after Liechtenstein.

Announcing the new lockdown restrictions at a press conference on Sunday, Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said the rules would be “monitored very consistently and sanctioned” by police officers.

“The coronavirus situation in Austria is serious, and a fourth wave is just catching us in full severity. The number of the recent infections in Austria is higher than it has ever been before,” he told reporters.

Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said on Tuesday that around 15,000 police checks were carried out across Austria on Monday alone.

“About 120 violations were found and punished,” he added, saying that the public had shown a high level of cooperation with the authorities.

Despite lawmakers’ conviction that the Austrian police are on hand to ensure the lockdown is complying. The policy is also criticized as difficult to enforce.

Unvaccinated people are permitted to leave their homes for several reasons, like grocery shopping, traveling to work provided they test negative for the virus, or to take part in religious practices.

The lockdown is also facing resistance from Austria’s third-biggest political party, the right-wing Freedom Party, which has called the move “a corona apartheid system” and made plans to protest against the restrictions in Vienna on Saturday.