<span style="color: #222222;">Austria government on Friday announced a full national COVID-19 lockdown starting from Monday. With this announcement, Austria has become the first country in Western Europe to reimpose a full Coronavirus lockdown to tackle a new wave of infections.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said, it would last a maximum of 20 days and there would be a legal requirement to get vaccinated from February 2022.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' The announcement came as roughly two-thirds of Austria's population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, one of the lowest rates in western Europe.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' The country's infection rate is among the highest on the continent, with a seven-day incidence of 991 per 100,000 people.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' A record 15,809 cases were reported in the past 24 hours, in a population of under nine million.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' Austria introduced a lockdown for all those who were unvaccinated on Monday but since then, infections have continued to set new records.<br />''<br />''The lockdown means people are no longer allowed to leave their houses with few exceptions such as shopping for essentials and exercising.</span>