(Vienna) Austria on Monday became the first EU country to confine people unvaccinated against COVID-19 and began immunizing children as young as five, as Europe faces an upturn in COVID-19 ‘epidemic.
In the main vaccination center in Vienna, young Viennese were quietly patient Monday to receive their first dose of vaccine, when two million unvaccinated people began a new containment.
To stop the spread of the virus and boost the vaccination rate of its population (65% to date), Austria is using great means.
Even if the European regulator has not yet given its approval for the use of Pfizer-BioNTech serum in 5-11 year olds, the city of Vienna has chosen to take the lead.
And the initiative is popular, on this holiday for schoolchildren in the capital. More than 10,000 appointments have already been booked, specifies Peter Hacker, municipal health assistant, who inaugurated this program in the early morning.
“We feel reassured,” reacts Gerald Schwarzl, 41, who came with his two children, including Theo, just five years old. “We believe they will be protected the same way they have been with other vaccines.”
Colored masks on the face, the first were treated to their injection, a little intimidated by the cameras.
Like Pia, eight years old, black dress and blond hair, who says she was “a little” afraid, but is very proud to leave with her “Ninja pass”, the name of the sesame given to children in Austria.
“Discrimination”
While the youngest are now involved, Austrian Conservative Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg has decided to confine, from Monday, people who are not immune after catching COVID-19 or not vaccinated.
The “situation is serious”, warned the head of government on Sunday, faced with the surge in new cases, the highest since the start of the pandemic – 2,000 per day on average in this country of 8.9 million inhabitants.
A wind of concern is blowing over Europe where contamination is climbing and restrictions are returning, from the Netherlands to Norway.
But Austria is the only one in the European Union (EU) to go so far as to confine the unvaccinated, after having already excluded them from restaurants, hotels or hairdressing salons, which infuriates part of the population. .
“Welcome to apartheid”, denounced Monday a group accusing the government of appointing “scapegoats”.
“Mr. Schallenberg causes agitation, division and forces people to a questionable injection,” said doctor Christian Fiala, active in a collective called Initiative Corona Info.
A demonstration supported by the far-right party FPÖ – whose anti-vaccine leader has just announced that he is positive for COVID-19 19-is scheduled for next Saturday.
Experts do not hide their skepticism about the effectiveness of such measures, even though the government has announced numerous checks and sanctions.
Others, such as specialist Bernd-Christian Funk, wonder in the media whether confining only part of the population is constitutionally compliant.
“It’s pure and simple discrimination,” was offended Sunday at a previous gathering Sabine, a 49-year-old energy advisor, who did not wish to give her last name. “Of course, my life and my freedom are hampered. This is not the right way to proceed ”.
“I am here to send a message: we must retaliate”, had added to AFP Sarah Hein, 30, an employee of the hospital sector. “We want to work, we want to help people, but we don’t want to get vaccinated. It’s up to us to decide ”.
Christmas safe
In downtown Vienna, traders and passers-by interviewed by AFP on the Christmas market generally welcomed these new restrictions, without appearing to fear a drop in attendance, as the holidays arrive.
“We do what needs to be done and we want everyone to feel safe,” explains Daniel Stocker, head of the market, located on the town hall square and which had to be canceled last year because of pandemic.
However, some Viennese fear that confining the unvaccinated is not enough.
This weekend, it was the “rush” on the wooden kiosks at the foot of the big Christmas tree, says Jutta Krumphold, the smiling fifties, who sells cosmetics and soaps.
People fear that generalized containment will be adopted. “They told me to stock up before everything closed” and the lights went out.