Austria's conservative-led government has said it was introducing a national lottery to encourage holdouts to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, hours before parliament was due to pass a bill introducing a national vaccine mandate, Reuters reports.

Roughly 72 per cent of Austria's population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, one of the lowest rates in western Europe.

“What is there to win in the vaccination lottery? Vouchers!” Chancellor Karl Nehammer told a news conference with the leader of the opposition Social Democrats, Pamela Rendi-Wagner, with whom the measure was negotiated.