The Austrian government has announced that it will allow unvaccinated people to enjoy Christmas and New Year’s Eve without being under lockdown restrictions — but some limitations will still apply.
Lockdown restrictions for the unvaccinated will continue until December 24th through to the 26th, when the federal government will allow unvaccinated people to temporarily exit lockdown and meet up to ten people without needing proof of vaccination or proof of recovery from the Wuhan virus.
There will also be no special restrictions for the unvaccinated on December 31st, New Year’s Eve. An 11 p.m. curfew for restaurants will be lifted, although the hotel and catering industries will continue to require proof of vaccination or proof of recovery, newspaper Kronen Zeitung reports.
According to the newspaper, the plan is part of the government’s new approach to de-escalate tensions in the country, where the government is trying to impose compulsory vaccination on the populace.
Insiders have claimed restrictions may simply not be followed by the general population regardless of what the authorities say.
Since Austria announced a lockdown for the unvaccinated, followed by a lockdown for all and the announcement of a forced vaccine mandate in the New Year that could carry fines and prison sentences, the country has seen weekly protests in Vienna attended by tens of thousands of people.
Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein credited the general lockdown, which started to be lifted for the vaccinated on December 12th, for giving the government a certain amount of leeway.
Kronen Zeitung notes that while cases have gone down recently, the decline could be temporary as some fear the Omicron variant could spread rapidly in the country in the coming weeks. Minister Mückstein refused to state if another lockdown could come in the new year, saying he couldn’t “rule anything out”.
The new policy comes after new Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer claimed that he wanted to heal the divisions in the country, saying “division harms all of us as citizens of this country” after he was sworn in as Chancellor last week.