VIENNA:  Starting on Saturday, Austria will make Covid-19 vaccine mandatory for all adults, making it the first country in the European Union to do so. President Alexander Van der Bellen signed the mandate into law on Friday.

The bill had previously been adopted by both houses of Parliament.

Except for pregnant women and those with medical exemptions, the law will apply to all adults in the Alpine country.

Unvaccinated people who refuse to comply with official warnings to get the shot might risk fines of up to 3,600 euros ($4,100) starting in mid-March, when police will begin monitoring people's vaccination status during routine checks. In November of last year, Austria announced plans for making Covid-19 vaccine mandatory in order to boost vaccination rates and combat rising infection rates.

According to the Austrian Interior Ministry, the country, which has a population of about 9 million people, has reported nearly 2 million Covid-19 cases thus far.In the last two weeks, daily infections in the country have hovered around 30,000 cases due to the highly infectious Omicron variant. According to official data, 75.7 percent of Austrians have gotten at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccination.

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