Chancellor of Austria, Alexander Schallenberg has said unvaccinated people within the country may be faced with fresh lockdown restrictions as Covid cases continue to rise.

He made the statement following a meeting with state leaders last Friday to discuss their reaction to the increasing coronavirus case numbers.

"The pandemic is not yet in the rear-view mirror. We are about to stumble into a pandemic of the unvaccinated," Schallenberg said.

As it stands, only citizens who have been vaccinated or have recovered from Covid are permitted to enter establishments such as bars, restaurants and hotels, once the number of intensive care unit patients hits 500 or 25% of Austria’s total ICU capacity, the Chancellor added.

However, people who have not been vaccinated will only be allowed to leave their homes for essential reasons once the number of intensive care unit patients reaches 600, or one third of capacity.

Latest health authority figures show the number of patients in Austria’s ICUs is 220, with 20,408 new cases reported over the last week. This brings the seven-day average to 228.5 per 100,000 inhabitants. The previous week, the figure was 152.5 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Around 65.4% of Austrians have received one dose of the Covid vaccine, whilst 62.2% have been fully vaccinated. Despite the government urging citizens to get vaccinated, the pace of the vaccine rollout has suffered a slowdown over the past few months.