Austria considering travel privileges for vaccinated people

Austria’s touristic sector could be revived thanks to the travel privileges, said State Secretary Magnus Brunner. The EU nation is ready for mild rules for COVID-tested and vaccinated people.

Austria’s current policy of flight bans and restrictions needed to change, the State Secretary said. Magnus Brunner believes that the country should adopt a “double strategy”, which requires people to prove their epidemiological safety. “I am convinced that vaccination can replace quarantine,” Brunner said.

He added that travelling and flying would then again be possible throughout Europe. Amid the pandemic, that remains a way of getting to the holiday destination healthily.

After one year of the global pandemic, Brunner says that it makes no sense for the nation, especially in aviation, to go it alone. To promote the touristic sector in the covid-era, the EU nation has already started rolling out testing infrastructure at Vienna Airport.

“If the government opens the door for those who have been tested and those who have recovered, then it would also have to do the same for those who have been vaccinated,” Brunner said.