After initially placing unjabbed citizens under lockdown, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced that the jab would become compulsory from February 1 onwards. Questions as to what would happen to those who refused to comply with the mandate have now been answered in the form of a draft that was leaked to the media.
Under the bill, anyone who refused to attend a scheduled vaccination appointment would receive an official summons from local authorities. If an individual failed to show up, they would then be summoned one more time within the next four weeks, RT reports.
Should the second official request be ignored as well, the person would face a fine of 3,600 ($4,061) or four weeks in prison. The fine would increase to 7,200 ($8,000) for those who had already been fined twice for violating the vaccination requirement.
Summit.news reports: No one will be forcibly brought to a vaccination center to get jabbed against their will, although rest assured, they will be forcibly placed behind bars if they continue to refuse.
If it passes, the legislation will stay in place for three years, with the government deciding if having recovered from COVID is a reasonable exemption.
Only pregnant women and children under the age of 12, in addition to those who face a danger to life or health by getting the vaccine, will be exempt.
The bill will also make regular booster shots compulsory.
With tens of thousands of protesters taking to the streets of Vienna in recent weeks, expect unrest to grow.
As we previously highlighted, former World Health Organization director Anthony Costello warned that making COVID-19 vaccines mandatory could cause riots across Europe.