Covid-19 in Austria: Company Vaccinations Continue
Besides the pre-registration and booking of appointments by individuals, Vienna offers a Covid-19 company vaccination program, which allows employers and their employees to receive vaccinations at an earlier time point.
More than 15,700 companies have registered for the company vaccination program in Vienna. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / CDC/ Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAM / Public Domain Description
Since the beginning of May, company vaccinations have been carried out in Vienna. In cooperation with the Vienna Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Austrian Industries, employees can be registered for Covid-19 vaccinations by the vaccination coordinators of their companies using their own online access and be vaccinated in one of the Viennese vaccination streets.
According to a press release by the City of Vienna, currently, employees of the category 2 can book appointments. Category 2 includes employees which are in contact with customers in the course of their work without structural protective measures - these are, for example, trade employees or employees in the catering trade or in body-related services, such as hairdressers or chiropodists.
"Accelerated vaccination is an essential factor in the fight against the pandemic, along with nationwide testing. Company vaccinations make an important contribution to this in order to achieve rapid vaccination successes. It is therefore very gratifying that we can now start immunizing employees who have contact with customers - especially in view of the opening steps that have now been taken," says Walter Ruck, President of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce.
In the next step, as of the beginning of June, appointments will be released for category 3 employees. These employees have customer contact but have structural protection through measures - such as plexiglass walls. Category 3 includes people who work at counters such as bank employees or those working in card offices or reception. The first vaccinations for category 3 workers will take place starting in mid-June.
Together, this adds up to around 200,000 employees who can receive their immunization against Covid-19 in Vienna as of today via the company vaccination channel. Already at the beginning of February, all Viennese companies were offered to assign their employees willing to be vaccinated to the respective risk categories.
Overall, 15,700 companies with around 411,000 have registered for the company vaccination program in Vienna.
Vaccinations of large companies or international organizations, which are organized and supplied with vaccines by the federal government, will also be carried out in the Vienna vaccination streets. These vaccinations will start next week and include about 50,000 people. Category 5 workers - those who have no customer contact whatsoever - can expect appointments starting in the second half of June.