Austrian Parliament passes mandatory vaccination bill, Chancellor announces lottery ticket for every jab
The Lower House of the Austrian Parliament has approved one of the toughest laws of European Union (E.U.), making it compulsory for everyone to get vaccinated against Coronavirus (COVID-19).
With 137 Member of Parliaments (MPs) voting in favour and 33 opposing it, the bill must now pass the Upper House of the Parliament and must be signed into law by the President – Alexander Van der Bellen.
Once signed, the law will come into force from February 1, 2022. From March 15, 2022, Austrian authorities will begin conducting checks to see if the people are vaccinated.
The law comes at a time when Government fears the arrival of 5th wave of COVID-19. People who are found unvaccinated will have to pay an initial fine of € 600 (U.S. $ 680). However, pregnant women and those who advised by doctor to not to get vaccinated, are exempted from this law. People who are recovering from COVID-19 are also exempted for 180 days from the date they received their first positive PCR Covid-19 report.
Besides, to encourage people to get vaccinated, the Chancellor of Austria – Karl Nehammer has announced that people will get one lottery ticket for each vaccine shot they have. This means, people who take the booster jab, will get 3 tickets. Every 10th ticket will win a € 500 (U.S. $ 568) gift voucher.
Speaking on the occasion Nehammer said, “To put it bluntly, we have earmarked up to 1 billion euro for the vaccination lottery which is based on reward and incentive. I believe it’s totally justified to spend this money.”
Taking it to twitter, Nehammer tweeted (translated to English), “It is important to us that there is both a reward for those who have been vaccinated and an incentive to get vaccinated now. This is the case with the vaccination fleet, where there will be 500 € vouchers for trade, tourism, gastronomy, services, culture and sport!” Original tweet in German:
Uns ist wichtig, dass es sowohl eine Belohnung für Geimpfte gibt, als auch Anreize dafür, sich nun impfen zu lassen. Das zieht sich bei der Impflotterie, bei der es 500€ Gutscheine für Handel, Tourismus, Gastronomie, Dienstleistungen, Kultur & Sport geben wird, durch!
— Karl Nehammer (@karlnehammer) January 20, 2022
The new law will last until January 31, 2024 and will be implemented in stages. Every household will receive a letter explaining the mandate from February 1, 2022, until March 15, 2022. Austrian officials will be able to search a national database that lists the vaccination status of every resident or the date that they must be vaccinated by.
Unvaccinated people will eventually face a maximum fine of € 3,600 (U.S. $ 4,000) for upto 4 times a year if they are not on the vaccine register by their assigned vaccination date. The authorities can waive the fine if a person gets vaccinated within 2 weeks of receiving the penalty notice.
Separately, among other E.U. members, France has also passed a bill that requires people to provide proof that they are fully vaccinated in order to access a wide range of everyday activities, such as visiting restaurants and bars and taking long-distance public transport between regions. Italy has also announced that people above 50 years of age must get vaccinated or face fines. Germany has also said that people require to show their booster jab certificate or negative RT PCR report to access public places.
