Austria to enter lockdown, bring in mandatory Covid vaccinations

Students will have to go back into home schooling, restaurants will close and cultural events will be canceled.

People wearing face mask to protect against the coronavirus as they walk at a shopping street in Vienna, Austria (Photo | AP) 

BERLIN: Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said Friday that the country will go into a national lockdown to contain a fourth wave of coronavirus cases.

Schallenberg said the lockdown will start Monday and initially last for 10 days. Students will have to go back into home schooling, restaurants will close and cultural events will be canceled.

Starting on Feb. 1, the country will also make vaccinations mandatory, public broadcaster ORF reported.

“We do not want a fifth wave,” Schallenberg said, according to ORF.