Austria Now Allows Unvaccinated to Leave Their Homes for a Walk

See, you guys.

It’s all wrapping up.

Even Austria is letting people who are unvaxed go for a walk.

The Guardian:

Austria has lifted its “lockdown of the unvaccinated”, Switzerland is gearing up for a “turbo” reopening and Germany’s finance minister has demanded an end date for Covid curbs as more countries prepare to ease pandemic controls.

It follows the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and France, who last week began to take steps to return to a semblance of normal life, with the Danish government declaring Covid-19 “should no longer be categorised as a socially critical disease” after 31 January.

Although infections, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, are still hitting record highs, data continues to show hospital and intensive care admissions are not surging in line with cases.

Austria’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, said that from next Saturday, shops and restaurants would be able to stay open until midnight and the maximum number of people able to participate in events would rise from 25 to 50.

The country this week also became the first EU member state to make vaccination legally compulsory for adults under a law making those who refuse the jab liable for fines of up to €3,600 from mid-March, after an introductory phase.

Nehammer’s announcement came as Austria lifted a lockdown that – while proving difficult to enforce – has in principle barred those who have not been jabbed from leaving their home except for essential reasons since 15 November.

Restrictions on movement for the unvaccinated were lifted on Monday, although they remain barred from eating in restaurants or shopping for non-essential items as part of government efforts to boost what was western Europe’s lowest vaccination rate.

So-called “2G” rules banning those who have not been been vaccinated or recovered from the virus from non-essential shops will end on 12 February, with restaurants and tourist attraction also open to those with just a recent negative test a week later.

Yeah, it’s clear we’re going into a lighter phase for a little while here.

No one knows why.

But all the rules are still on the books.

None of these 2020 emergency orders have been canceled, and they never will be.