Austria imposes lockdown on unvaccinated citizens – as Europe becomes epicentre of pandemic

Published

4 years ago

November 15, 2021

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Austria is placing millions of people not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in lockdown as of today as Europe becomes the epicentre of the pandemic once again.

Anyone over the age of 12 who has not been double-jabbed is now only allowed to leave their homes for work, school, exercise and buying essential supplies – with the lockdown affecting about two million of Austria‘s 8.9 million population.

The revived restrictions came into force at midnight on Sunday and will last for 10 days before being reviewed.

Europe is now accounting for more than half of the average seven-day cases worldwide and around half of latest deaths – the highest levels since April last year when COVID-19 was at its initial peak in Italy.

Governments across Europe are concerned that enforcing fresh measures will derail a fragile economic recovery as other countries including the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic taking or planning measures to curb the spread.

Austria has one of the lowest vaccination rates in western Europe, with only around 65% of the total population fully vaccinated.

The country has faced a worrying trend in infections in recent weeks – reporting 11,552 new cases on Sunday, while a week ago there were 8,554 new infections.

The seven-day infection rate is currently 775.5 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while neighbouring Germany, which has already sounded the alarm over rising numbers, has a rate of 289 in comparison.

In the Netherlands, 15 people were arrested after protests broke out over a three-week partial coronavirus lockdown that was imposed on Saturday night due to a spike in infections.

Caretaker Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had earlier said his government wants to “deliver a hard blow to the virus” as bars, restaurants and supermarkets will be ordered to close at 8pm and professional sports matches will be played in empty stadiums.

In eastern Europe, Romania and Bulgaria have reported record numbers of daily coronavirus infections. Case rates have increased by more than tenfold in two months to the end of October, when some restrictions were reimposed.

Daily case rates in the UK have also risen to around 70 cases for every 100,000 people and have remained there for much of the summer.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the fresh concerns as “storm clouds” of a new coronavirus wave are gathering over Europe on Friday and urged Britons to get their booster jabs.

According to The Times, the UK government is poised to extend the COVID-19 booster programme to people under the age of 50 to drive down transmission rates as winter approaches.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is expected to give its approval on Monday on the move to extend the rollout, with the newspaper adding that the precise details of the age groups have not been confirmed.

More than two million people in England received their COVID-19 booster in the past week, with health officials describing the numbers as record-breaking.

And at least one million 12 to 15-year-olds have now had a COVID vaccine in England, with jabs for this group beginning on 20 September.

Professor Neil Ferguson, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said with high levels of COVID immunity and a strong booster vaccination programme, the UK is “unlikely” to experience a “catastrophic winter wave” of infections that would require a Christmas lockdown similar to last year.

Acknowledging however that the UK is seeing a “hint of an uptick in the last few days” following weeks of declining case numbers and hospital admissions, he told the BBC’s Today programme: “We’ve had very high case numbers – between 30,000 and 50,000 a day – really for the last four months, since the beginning of July.

“That has obviously had some downsides.

“It has also paradoxically had an upside of boosting the immunity of the population compared with countries like Germany, the Netherlands and France, which have had much lower case numbers and are only now seeing an uptick.”

Wales is dealing with a high level of virus across the country by requiring COVID passes on entry of cinemas, theatres and concert halls in a bid to bring cases under control.

Dawn Bowden, deputy minister for arts and sport, said the measures “will help keep these businesses open during the difficult autumn and winter months ahead”.

The Welsh government said the guidance on self-isolation had also been changed and people are being encouraged to work from home to help tackle the rising cases.

Meanwhile, Israel has announced that a campaign to vaccinate some 1.2 million children aged five to 11 will begin within days.

The decision to green light jabs for children in this age group was announced by the health ministry on Sunday, following an agreement by a panel of experts.

It comes after US health officials granted the vaccine safe for the same age group earlier this month.

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Central and eastern European governments have had to take drastic action with fresh measures as they struggle to ramp up vaccine uptake.

Latvia, one of the least vaccinated countries in the EU, introduced a four-week lockdown in mid-October. On Friday, its parliament voted to ban ministers who refuse vaccination from voting on laws and participating in discussions.

The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia have also tightened restrictions.

World

It’s been a confusing week – and Trump’s been made to look weak

Published

4 hours ago

August 22, 2025

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It’s been a confusing week.

The Monday gathering of European leaders and Ukraine’s president with Donald Trump at the White House was highly significant.

Ukraine latest: Trump changes tack

The leaders went home buoyed by the knowledge that they’d finally convinced the American president not to abandon Europe. He had committed to provide American “security guarantees” to Ukraine.

The details were sketchy, and sketched out only a little more through the week (we got some noise about American air cover), but regardless, the presidential commitment represented a clear shift from months of isolationist rhetoric on Ukraine – “it’s Europe’s problem” and all the rest of it.

Yet it was always the case that, beyond that clear achievement for the Europeans, Russia would have a problem with it.

Trump’s envoy’s language last weekend – claiming that Putin had agreed to Europe providing “Article 5-like” guarantees for Ukraine, essentially providing it with a NATO-like collective security blanket – was baffling.

Russia gives two fingers to the president

And throughout this week, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has repeatedly and predictably undermined the whole thing, pointing out that Russia would never accept any peace plan that involved any European or NATO troops in Ukraine.

“The presence of foreign troops in Ukraine is completely unacceptable for Russia,” he said yesterday, echoing similar statements stretching back years.

Remember that NATO’s “eastern encroachment” was the justification for Russia’s “special military operation” – the invasion of Ukraine – in the first place. All this makes Trump look rather weak.

It’s two fingers to the president, though interestingly, the Russian language has been carefully calibrated not to poke Trump but to mock European leaders instead. That’s telling.

The bilateral meeting (between Putin and Zelenskyy) hailed by Trump on Monday as agreed and close – “within two weeks” – looks decidedly doubtful.

Maybe that’s why he went along with Putin’s suggestion that there be a bilateral, not including Trump, first.

It’s easier for the American president to blame someone else if it’s not his meeting, and it doesn’t happen.

NATO defence chiefs met on Wednesday to discuss the details of how the security guarantees – the ones Russia won’t accept – will work.

European sources at the meeting have told me it was all a great success. And to the comments by Lavrov, a source said: “It’s not up to Lavrov to decide on security guarantees. Not up to the one doing the threatening to decide how to deter that threat!”

The argument goes that it’s not realistic for Russia to say from which countries Ukraine can and cannot host troops.

Would Trump threaten force?

The problem is that if Europe and the White House want Russia to sign up to some sort of peace deal, then it would require agreement from all sides on the security arrangements.

The other way to get Russia to heel would be with an overwhelming threat of force. Something from Trump, like: “Vladimir – look what I did to Iran…”. But, of course, Iran isn’t a nuclear power.

Something else bothers me about all this. The core concept of a “security guarantee” is an ironclad obligation to defend Ukraine into the future.

Future guarantees would require treaties, not just a loose promise. I don’t see Trump’s America truly signing up to anything that obliges them to do anything.

A layered security guarantee which builds over time is an option, but from a Kremlin perspective, would probably only end up being a repeat of history and allow them another “justification” to push back.

Image and reality don’t seem to match

Among Trump’s stream of social media posts this week was an image of him waving his finger at Putin in Alaska. It was one of the few non-effusive images from the summit.

He posted it next to an image of former president Richard Nixon confronting Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev – an image that came to reflect American dominance over the Soviet Union.

That may be the image Trump wants to portray. But the events of the past week suggest image and reality just don’t match.

The past 24 hours in Ukraine have been among the most violent to date.

World

What’s it like with the National Guard on the streets of DC?

Published

4 hours ago

August 22, 2025

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What's it like with the National Guard on the streets of DC?

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What’s it like on the streets of DC right now, as thousands of federal police patrol the streets?

Who is Steve Witkoff, the US envoy regularly meeting Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu to broker peace in Ukraine and Gaza?

And why is Californian Governor Gavin Newsom now tweeting like Donald Trump?

Martha Kelner and Mark Stone answer your questions.

If you’ve also got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

World

At least 17 dead in Colombia after car bombing and helicopter attack

Published

4 hours ago

August 22, 2025

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At least 17 dead in Colombia after car bombing and helicopter attack

At least 17 people were killed after a car bombing and an attack on a police helicopter in Colombia, officials have said.

Authorities in the southwest city of Cali said a vehicle loaded with explosives detonated near a military aviation school, killing five people and injuring more than 30.

Authorities said at least 12 died in the attack on a helicopter transporting personnel to an area in Antioquia in northern Colombia, where they were to destroy coca leaf crops – the raw material used in the production of cocaine.

Antioquia governor Andres Julian said a drone attacked the helicopter as it flew over coca leaf crops.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro attributed both incidents to dissidents of the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

He said the aircraft was targeted in retaliation for a cocaine seizure that allegedly belonged to the Gulf Clan.

Who are FARC, and are they still active?

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a Marxist guerrilla organisation, was the largest of the country’s rebel groups, and grew out of peasant self-defence forces.

It was formed in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, carrying out a series of attacks against political and economic targets.

In 2016, after more than 50 years of civil war, FARC rebels and the Colombian government signed a peace deal.

It officially ceased to be an armed group the following year – but some small dissident groups rejected the agreement and refused to disarm.

According to a report by Colombia’s Truth Commission in 2022, fighting between government forces, FARC, and the militant group National Liberation Army had killed around 450,000 people between 1985 and 2018.

Both FARC dissidents and members of the Gulf Clan operate in Antioquia.

It comes as a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that coca leaf cultivation is on the rise in Colombia.

The area under cultivation reached a record 253,000 hectares in 2023, according to the UN’s latest available report.