Austria is suspending the mandatory vaccination against COVID-19, as the Ministers of Health and Constitutional Affairs said today, six days before the fines for violating this measure begin.

Health Minister Johannes Rauch said in a press conference that there would be another assessment of the points of this measure concerning public health and constitutional laws within three months. He and Constitutional Affairs Minister Carolyn Edstadler said the measure could be reversed if necessary.

Some European countries had recently barged ahead by introducing wide-ranging Covid-19 vaccine mandates, but such major vaccination obligations also exist in Latin America and Asia.

Italy and Greece meanwhile opted for mandatory vaccines among at-risk age groups. These are defined as those over the age of 60 in Greece and those over the age of 50 in Italy.

As the map shows, the obligation to be vaccinated against Covid-19 also exists for all adults in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Vatican City, which were the first countries to introduce these mandates. Indonesia and Micronesia followed later, as well as Ecuador, which mandates coronavirus vaccinations for everyone above the age of five. In Costa Rica, it is eligible for minors for whom coronavirus vaccines are mandatory.

Elsewhere, obligatory vaccinations are in place for healthcare workers or certain other professions requiring a high level of human contact. Some countries also opt not to issue mandates but enact tight regulations surrounding unvaccinated individuals that amount to a de-fact vaccine mandate.

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