Austrian Government Suspends Mandatory Covid-19 Vaccine For All Adults

 

The Austrian government announced on Wednesday that it would suspend the country’s Covid-19 vaccination mandate for 18 years and older, days before the law becomes effective due to the findings that vaccines were not effective against Omicron variant. 

The government, however, said Wednesday that it was suspending the mandate at least for now following a report from a commission of health and legal experts. Health Minister Johannes Rauch said the commission will deliver another report within three months and the government will review the situation then. 

“It is time now to use the flexibility of this law,” which allows for the mandate to be suspended, said Karoline Edtstadtler, the minister responsible for constitutional matters. 

“We came to the conclusion that … we will suspend the vaccination mandate, in accordance with proportionality,” she said. “At the moment, many reasons point to this interference with fundamental rights is not justified; at the moment — because of the dominant variant we see here — we don’t see any need to actually implement this vaccination mandate.”