Austria returned to a full nationwide lockdown Monday – the first EU country to take restrictions that far amid the latest wave of surging COVID-19 infections across Western Europe.

And the new restrictions – in Austria and elsewhere on the continent – are being met with backlash.

From Croatia to the Netherlands, people took on the streets over the weekend to protest what they see as curbs on their freedom. Some demonstrations became violent, underscoring the level of anger felt by the protesters.

But with cases up sharply, experts say governments felt compelled to act.

To discuss:

• Beate Kampmann is the Director of the Vaccine Centre at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
• Eva Schernhammer is a Professor of Epidemiology at the Medical University of Vienna.
• Petar Cholakov is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
• Paul Hockenos is a journalist and author.

For more:

Austria will become the first country in western Europe to reimpose a full COVID-19 lockdown as neighboring Germany warned it may follow suit, sending shivers through financial markets worried about the economic fallout https://t.co/AKtcnaRUgt 1/5 pic.twitter.com/ziUv9ml1hT

— Reuters (@Reuters) November 19, 2021

Breaking News: Austria will go into a nationwide lockdown on Monday. It also plans to impose a national Covid vaccine mandate, Europe’s first.https://t.co/jAhNYMOpf9

— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 19, 2021