Demonstrators protest against COVID-19 measures in Vienna, Austria
VIENNA, Nov 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Tens of thousands of people, many of them far-right supporters, protested in Vienna against coronavirus restrictions a day after Austria’s government announced a new lockdown and said vaccines would be made compulsory next year.
Whistling, blowing horns and banging drums, crowds streamed into Heroes’ Square in front of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace in central Vienna, in the early afternoon, one of several protest locations.
Many demonstrators waved Austrian flags and carried signs with slogans such as “no to vaccination”, “enough is enough” or “down with the fascist dictatorship”.
By mid-afternoon the crowds had swelled to roughly 35,000 people, according to the police, and were marching down Vienna’s inner ring road before heading back towards the Hofburg.
A police spokesman said there had been fewer than 10 arrests, for breaches of coronavirus restrictions and the ban on Nazi symbols.
Roughly 66per cent of Austria’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, one of the lowest rates in western Europe. Many Austrians are sceptical about vaccines, a view encouraged by the far-right Freedom Party, the third-biggest in parliament.
With daily infections still setting records even after a lockdown was imposed on the unvaccinated this week, the government said on Friday it would reintroduce a lockdown on Monday and make it compulsory to get vaccinated as of Feb 1.
The Freedom Party (FPO) and other vaccine-critical groups had already been planning a show of force in Vienna on Saturday before Friday’s announcement, which prompted FPO leader Herbert Kickl to respond that “As of today, Austria is a dictatorship”.
Kickl could not attend because he has caught COVID-19.
ROME: Italy reported 49 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday (Nov 20) against 48 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 11,555 from 10,544.
Italy has registered 133,131 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth-highest in the world. The country has reported 4.9 million cases to date.
The number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 – not including those in intensive care – rose to 4,250 on Saturday from 4,145 on Friday.
There were 50 new admissions to intensive care units, up from 39 on Friday. A total of 512 patients are currently in intensive care.
Some 574,812 tests for COVID-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 534,690, the health ministry said.
MOSCOW: Russia’s record high COVID-19 death toll persisted for a second straight day on Saturday, as the number of new infections declined.
The state coronavirus task force reported 1,254 COVID-19 deaths, matching Friday’s tally.
The task force also reported 37,120 new confirmed cases.
The daily new infections in recent weeks appear to have a downward trend but still remain higher than during previous surges of the virus.
The latest surge in infections and deaths comes amid low vaccination rates and lax public attitudes toward taking precautions.
About 40 per cent of Russia’s nearly 146 million people have been fully vaccinated, even though the country approved a domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine months before most of the world.
In total, the coronavirus task force has reported nearly 9.3 million confirmed infections and 262,843 COVID-19 deaths, by far the highest death toll in Europe.
They say 462,000 people with COVID-19 died between April 2020 and September of this year. — NNN-AGENCIES