In the face of a new wave of the menacing epidemic, European countries have begun to offer the strongest epidemic prevention measures to date.

On Friday, November 19, local time, the Austrian government announced that a nationwide blockade would be imposed from November 22nd, that is, next week, for an initial period of 10 days, possibly up to 20 days, and that citizens would be forced to receive COVID-19 vaccine from February 1 next year. During the blockade, Austrian nationals are not allowed to leave their homes except for work and the purchase of necessities and exercise.

Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg, who announced the blockade decision, said:

"We do not want a fifth wave of outbreaks, nor do we want a sixth or seventh wave of outbreaks. We don't want to talk about it next summer. "

This means that Austria will become the first Western European country to restart the national blockade this autumn and will be the first European country to be forced to be vaccinated.

Austria's blockade for all unvaccinated nationals aged 12 and over just came into effect on Monday, becoming the first European country to impose a home ban on people who have not been vaccinated, but even so, it has failed to stop the surge in COVID-19 cases. The announcement of the national blockade comes a day after more than 15000 new cases of infection were reported in Austria on Thursday, the highest since the outbreak in the country. At present, 66% of Austria's population has been vaccinated, accounting for less than 67% of the overall EU average.

Also on Friday, Germany, Europe's largest economy, issued a warning. At the press conference, when asked by a reporter whether to rule out the possibility of a total blockade like Austria, German Health Minister Jens Spahn replied

"even if it creates news panic, (I would say), we are in a situation in which all possibilities cannot be ruled out."

"We [Germany] are in a state of national emergency."

More than 65000 new infections were reported in Germany on Thursday, the day before Spahn's speech, and the number of new cases in a single day reached a national high, more than 12000 higher than the previous record of one-day new cases announced on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the fourth wave of the epidemic was hitting Germany at full speed, and on Thursday she agreed with the governors of 16 states to implement a package of new epidemic prevention measures.

One of the new measures is to restrict the recreational activities in public places for those who have not been vaccinated in areas where the number of hospitalized cases per 100000 people is more than 3%. That is, to implement the "vaccinated and recovered"-"2G" epidemic prevention principle that has been implemented in many federal states and cities in Germany. This means that the unvaccinated are basically excluded from public life. Even if the nucleic acid test is negative, people who have not been vaccinated will not be able to enter public places such as restaurants, bars and clubs.

Agn è s Pannier-Runacher, the French industry minister, told the media on Friday that the French government was "very vigilant" in monitoring the latest outbreak after the Austrian chancellor and the German health minister spoke. The situation in France appears to be better than that in Austria and Germany, possibly because of France's high vaccination coverage. At the same time, she urged the nation to be vaccinated.

The media pointed out that at present, about 69% of the citizens of France have been vaccinated, and about 68% of the population of Germany have been vaccinated. Germany and Austria are among the countries with the lowest proportion of vaccinated people in Western Europe.