– As WHO cautions on lifting safety protocols
Against its planned action to commence enforcement of vaccine mandate for all adults by middle of March, the Austrian government says the proposed action has been shelved.
This comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently urged all nations to be wary of lifting COVID-19 safety protocols and vaccination as countries are still battling high infection rates with surge in hospitalisation.
WHO Director General, Adhanom Ghebreyesus Tedros, sent the warning signal on Monday, in an early hour tweet saying: “It’s too early to declare victory over COVID-19. Many countries are facing high rates of hospitalisation and death. With high transmission, the threat of a new, more dangerous variant remains real.
“We urge all people to exercise caution and all governments to stay the course”, he stated.
Notwithstanding, the Alpine nation of nine million population called off it planned vaccine mandate as it considers it as an invasion of fundamental rights of the citizens.
The law which came in early February amidst delta-variant surge in the country, had a plan with force men to start checking citizens in traffic for their vaccination status, and anyone found not vaccinated will be made to pay fine up to 3,600 euros.
A statement from the AFP cited Minister Karoline Edtstadler, saying that “ After consultations with the health minister, we have decided that we will of course follow what the (expert) commission has said.
“We see no need to actually implement this compulsory vaccination due to the Omicron variant that we are predominantly experiencing here. The highly contagious variant is widely believed to be less severe than previous strains of the virus, and so far, Austrian hospitals have been able to cope with the surge in cases”, he stated.
The country is considering a review of the situation by a commission of experts in mid-June.
