Demonstrators hold up banners and placards during a protest against Covid-19 vaccinations in front of Groote Schuur Hospital, one of the biggest public hospitals, in Cape Town on August 21, 2021. (Photo by RODGER BOSCH / AFP)
It is interesting to note Austria’s parliament last week approved making Covid vaccinations mandatory for adults from 4 February.
Austria joins Ecuador, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Indonesia and Micronesia as other countries to have made the same decision after all of all Austrian parties, with the exception of the far-right, supported the measure brought to parliament.
Failure to take the jab could see you forking out up to R62 000 from mid-March after an initial “introductory phase”.
It is compulsory to take the vaccine, except for pregnant women and those with a medical exemption.
In a further bid to encourage people to take the jab, their government has launched a lottery for all those vaccinated with prizes of R8 500 vouchers to be used in shops, hotels, restaurants and culture and sports venues.
Austria has suffered almost 14 000 Covid-related deaths in a population of roughly nine million people.
Their daily infection rates is at an all-time high with 27 600 infections on Wednesday last week.
About 72% of Austrians have been fully vaccinated.
Back home, our numbers of fully vaccinated people is far less – 16.4 million people, which equates to 27.2% of the population.
We have had more than 94 000 Covid-related deaths.
Due to the slow vaccination rate and jab hesitancy, it is time to think out of the box to encourage more people to get vaccinated.
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