vienna to protest the country s strict covid-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates. but at a news conference saturday, austrian chancellor karl nihammer announced some of those coronavirus measures will ease up soon, especially those targeting the unvaccinated. he said, as of february 12 people who are not vaccinated will no longer be barred from nonessential shops, and the following week will be able to go to restaurants and other tourist attractions if they have proof of recovery or a negative coronavirus test. last week the government said it was lifting the lockdown restrictions on the unvaccinated on monday. since november, they have only been able to leave their homes for essential reasons like work or buying food. officials say even though infections remain high, the number of people hospitalized has dropped which has allowed them to relax some of the rules. one thing that isn t changing, the country s vaccine mandate
and that is a big blow at a big time of yearfor that and that is a big blow at a big time of year for that industry. also, i think they will be increasing personal pressure on the chancellor rishi sunak, who is currently on a business trip to california where he is talking to tech bosses and trying to drum up investment in the uk. i think labour will push for him to either come back or try and embarrass him for not being here at a crucial time. another thing that is developing this morning is the new restrictions on travel from the uk to france, that will be introduced from this weekend by the french government. we are still waiting for official confirmation on that from emmanuel macron but it does look like there will be new stricter testing requirements on people going from the uk to france, for example having to isolate for at least 48 hours when you get there and having to isolate for a week if you don t have a negative test, but, crucially, only being allowed into france if you ar
we are concerned that the new variant may pose substantial risk to public health. belgium confirmed it identified one case of the new strain which feared to be more transmissable than the delta variant. austrians have been told to stay home and only go out for essential reasons. hard. angry. all things. that is what is going on over there. we know it is a global pandemic, but it can be easy to focus just on our community or neighborhood or country, and yet the nature of this provides information and even guidance for us by looking at what is abroad particularly. as i emphasized some of what happens abroad is a first run for what is a possibility and sometimes a likelihood to happen here. if you look at europe literally breaking records, more covid now than ever before, you can ask is that an argument for cynicism or
right now, a lot of focus on europe, where cases are surging particularly in austria, a spike there sparking a strict 20-day lockdown. so now what that means is residents whether vaccinated or not, they can only go out for essential reasons. cnn reporter selma abdulaziz is in vienna, austria with more. we talk in the u.s. this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. is it similar in austria with what we re seeing? stand by. apologies, we have the court live pictures for the trial of aplad arbery. let s listen in. today why we are here is to go ahead and present you with the state s closing argument. the state neegets to go first a last because the state has the burden of proof to prove this to you beyond a reasonable doubt,