Austria suspends obligatory vaccination despite record infection numbers

VIENNA - Austria's compulsory vaccination mandate is to be suspended, just days before enforcement measures were due to kick in, the country's government announced on Wednesday.

The mandate, which makes vaccination against COVID-19 compulsory for all adults in Austria, has been in effect since Feb 5. However, routine police checks and fines for non-compliance were due to start in mid-March.

Austria's constitutional affairs minister Karoline Edtstadler told a press conference on Wednesday that the federal government is suspending the vaccine mandate on the advice of a commission of health and legal experts.

However, Health Minister Johannes Rauch said the commission will deliver another report in three months, at which point the government may make new decisions.

Austria first announced plans to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory in November last year, in a bid to contain surging infections. It was the first European Union country to introduce such a measure.

This week's suspension of the vaccine mandate came despite high infection numbers in Austria, after COVID-19 restrictions were eased in early March. On Wednesday, the country reported 47,795 COVID-19 infections in the previous 24 hours, a new daily record.

Official data showed that as of Tuesday, 75.8 percent of the Austrian population had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.