Austria will lift most of its remaining COVID-19 restrictions by March 5th, including scrapping an earlier closing time of midnight for bars and restaurants and allowing nightclubs to reopen, Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on Wednesday.
The Government said the steps were being taken cautiously with daily new infections hovering below their record peak and a manageable situation in hospitals due to the smaller incidence of severe cases in the latest wave of the coronavirus, dominated by the highly contagious Omicron variant.
The easing of curbs as Omicron has proven to be milder than earlier variants will deepen doubt about whether the Government will implement a recently enacted law making vaccination against COVID-19 compulsory – the first such measure in the European Union.
The law, due to be enforced from March 15th, has done little to raise one of the lowest vaccination rates in western Europe.
“On March 5th the bulk of the restrictions that so burden people will be lifted,” Nehammer told a news conference.
The Government recently announced that as of this Saturday unvaccinated people can return to restaurants and non-essential shops if they have been tested. Nehammer said such proof of testing, recovery or vaccination would also be scrapped and limits on the size of events would be lifted by March 5th.