Austria will again enter a nationwide lockdown and Germany is no longer ruling out a similar move as Europe grapples with a brutal wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
Austria will become the first western European country to impose widespread restrictions after curbs on unvaccinated people failed to stem a surge in new infections. It will also become the first European country to mandate Covid-19 shots as it seeks to exit the crisis.
“There are too many among us who haven’t shown solidarity,” Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said in Tyrol after meeting with provincial governors. “Raising the vaccination rate is the only way to break this vicious circle.”
Almost simultaneously with Austria’s announcement, Germany’s top health official said Europe’s largest economy may also need to clamp down harder. Only on Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government increased pressure on Germans to get inoculated by announcing plans to restrict many leisure activities for the unvaccinated.
“We’re in a situation in which we shouldn’t rule anything out,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said in Berlin Friday when asked whether another lockdown was possible.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas later pushed back, saying in an interview with Bild that there’s no legal base any more for a national lockdown. Still, some states are moving ahead.
Starting next week, Bavaria -- Germany’s state with the highest infection rate -- will close clubs and bars, while shops will have to reduce capacity and restaurants will have to shut by 10 p.m. The hardest-hit communities will face even tougher restrictions, the state government announced on Friday.
With available ICU beds at less than half the capacity compared with a year ago and Covid cases continuing to surge, Germany’s health system has become increasingly stretched. Merkel said Thursday that the country faces a “dramatic situation.”
“The whole of Germany is one big outbreak,” Lothar Wieler, the head of Germany’s RKI public-health institute, said Friday at the news conference with Spahn. “This is a national emergency.”
Only setting limits on unvaccinated people isn’t enough, Wieler said. He called on people to stay home, cancel large events, close hot spots such as poorly ventilated bars and clubs, reduce private contacts and avoid meeting people indoors.
