(Credit: https://www.austria.info/)

The government of Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg has decided to impose a strict nationwide lockdown for all of its citizens who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“A lockdown for the unvaccinated means one cannot leave one’s home unless one is going to work, shopping (for essentials), stretching one’s legs – exactly what we all had to suffer through in 2020,” said Schallenberg.

Police will perform random checks to ensure compliance with the new measures. The lockdown will be formally announced at a government meeting on Nov. 13, 2021.

Austria is undergoing a fierce COVID-19 wave caused by the highly infectious Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus. The country reported 11,975 new coronavirus cases on Nov. 11, 2021, which is a pandemic record. About 65 percent of Austria’s population is fully vaccinated against coronavirus.