AUSTRIA will plunge itself into a nation-wide lockdown from Monday as Covid cases soar and hospital corridors fill with dead bodies.
Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said the lockdown would run for a "maximum of 20 days" and imposed a new vaccine mandate.
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Austria will enter into a national lockdown from Monday Credit: AFP 6
The Alpine nation registered a whopping 15,145 new Covid cases on Thursday - well above previous peaks Credit: AP 6
From February 1 next year, all Austrians will also be required to have both jabs, Schallenberg announced. Those who refuse could face heavy fines.
Austria registered a whopping 15,145 new Covid cases on Thursday, smashing last November's peak of 9,586 confirmed cases.
Covid rates have been rapidly rising in recent weeks as the country grapples with one of the lowest vaccination rates in western Europe - roughly 66 per cent - and among the highest infection rates with a seven-day average of 990.7 per 100,000 people in the past week.
Experts warn the death toll could reach 2,000 by the end of this week, according to Kronen Zeitung.
"Despite months of persuasion, we have not succeeded in convincing enough people to get vaccinated," Schallenberg told a press conference on Friday and blamed those refusing to get jabbed for an "attack on the health system".
"Whipped up by radical anti-vaxxers, by fake news, too many among us didn't get vaccinated. The results are overcrowded intensive care units and enormous suffering," he added.
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"We do not want a fifth wave. Nor do we want a sixth or seventh wave. This is very painful."
This comes as country's two worst-hit provinces - Salzburg and Upper Austria - have already announced a lockdown from Monday.
The governors of Austria's nine provinces met with Schallenberg and Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein on Friday ahead of today's shock announcement.
The European nation had imposed a lockdown for the unvaccinated on Monday but infections have continue surge well above last year's dreadful peak.
People who can't show proof of being jabbed and are caught going into shops, pubs, clubs and cinemas face being slapped with a €500 fine while business owners could be slugged for €3,600, according to the Interior Ministry.
Under the new measures coming in next week, Austrians are being told to work from home while non-essential shops will be closed.
Schools will remain open for face-to-face learning until December 12 but officials have said they plan to review this policy in 10 days.
Meanwhile, in Linz, nurses have resorted to storing dead Covid patients in hospital corridors.
One nurse told Kronen: "There were so many deaths at the weekend that the prosecution was overburdened, we had to put the corpses in the aisle."
The flood of new Covid patients has become so overwhelming that nurses have reported ditching "normal" caring practices reserved for dying people, according to the paper.
Last week, Europe accounted for more than half of the seven-day average of infections globally and at least half of the latest Covid deaths, according to a tally by Reuters.
It comes as German Chancellor Angela Merkel slapped fresh curbs on public life for unvaccinated people in areas where hospital beds are filling up fast with Covid patients while Belgium's Prime Minister said the continent was on "red alert".
Meanwhile, Greece has imposed more restrictions on unvaccinated people and barred them from all indoor spaces following a recent surge in cases.
Key developments in Europe's Covid crisis include
Germany hospitals buckling under pressure and lockdown could be enforced until Dec 15 Russia Covid cases hitting record highs for second day Belgium clamping down with heavy restrictions in desperate effort to avoid full lockdown Italy considering introducing a lockdown for unvaccinated amid fourth wave fears sweeping the country
The UK could follow Germany and Austria and plunge unvaccinated Britons into lockdown-style measures, an expert has warned.
Professor John Ashton, formerly regional director of public health for the North West of England, said it “may come to that” in the UK, too.
Asked what he thought of such measures on Good Morning Britain, the former president of the UK Faculty of Public Health said: “I fear that it might come to that.
“We all need to be playing our part, and at the moment, it's as though the thing is over.
"We really need to get back to wearing our masks, social distancing and yes, passports.
“This is not about civil rights, it's about winning the battle with this virus and not throwing in the towel, which is what seems to be being advocated by the business community.”
When asked what he thought of Germany using restrictions on the unvaccinated, Prof Ashton said: “I think it may well come to that.
“But we really should be getting our secondary school kids with second vaccines before Christmas, we should be beginning to vaccinate primary school children.
“There are still millions of people who are not double vaccinated in the UK. And that's a problem because the virus is still circulating, and while the virus is circulating, there is the potential for more mutations.”
Germany's Covid case rate (639) - new daily infections per million - is not much higher than the UK's (544). Austria's is 1,145 per million.
But the nations' full vaccination rate is lower than the UK's. Germany has double jabbed around 67.5 per cent of its total population, and Austria only 66 per cent, compared to the UK's 80 per cent of over 12s.
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Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said the shutdown should last a 'maximum of 20 days' Credit: AFP 6
Covid infections rates in Austria have soared in recent weeks Credit: Reuters
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