Austria will become the first country in western Europe to reimpose a full COVID-19 lockdown, it said on Friday as neighboring Germany warned it may follow suit, sending shivers through financial markets worried about the economic fallout.
A fourth wave of infections has plunged Germany, Europe's largest economy, into a national emergency, Health Minister Jens Spahn said, warning that vaccinations alone will not cut case numbers.
Austria said it in addition to lockdown it would require the whole population to be vaccinated from Feb. 1. Both decisions infuriated many in a country where skepticism about state mandates affecting individual freedoms runs high, encouraged by the far-right Freedom Party, the third biggest in parliament.