Thousands protest in Austria’s Vienna against COVID restrictions

Thousands protest in Austria’s Vienna against strict COVID restrictions.

More than 40,000 people took to the streets in Vienna to protest the strict coronavirus restrictions that have been put in place by the government in Austria. People in Austria are under lockdown again in a bid to fight the ongoing pandemic.

The police took to Twitter and said: “The number of participants in the demonstrations against the current Corona measures is estimated at over 10,000 and in the counter-demonstrations at around 1500.”

In a second tweet, the police said: “Demonstrators against the Corona measures threw pyrotechnic objects at our colleagues. Pepper spray has already been used and some demonstrators have been arrested on suspicion of resisting state authority.”

The number of protesters reportedly grew to around 40,000 people. Although largely non-violent, pepper straight was deployed by the police after demonstrators threw pyrotechnic items at officers.

According to the Our World in Data project at Oxford University, Austria is currently seeing more than 9000 new infections a day. Nearly 60 people a day are dying from the virus. Earlier in the summer, the number of Covid deaths in the country dropped to nearly zero.

The percentage of vaccinated people in Austria is significantly lower than many European countries. At the moment Austria is around 67 per cent fully vaccinated.

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