A doctor in Austria who was forced to close her practice following death threats by opponents of measures to contain the pandemic has committed suicide, the public prosecutor's office said on Friday.
She left suicide notes but the public prosecutor's office did not provide further information. It said no post-mortem examination was planned.
Austrian Health Minister Johannes Rauch responded to news of her death with dismay. "Death threats against her and her staff were brutal reality. Hatred against people is inexcusable. This hatred must finally stop," he said in a tweet.
The doctor, who worked in Upper Austria, had recently closed her practice, a step she said was due to months of receiving threatening letters from those opposed to vaccines and measures taken by the government to contain the pandemic.
In one of the letters she received, the writer said he would enter her premises and torture and kill the doctor and her staff.
She said could no longer afford the costs for security measures, in a statement posted on her website. The doctor was given police protection for a long time but said she was had also spent about €100,000 ($102,000) herself on security measures.
The police will continue to investigate who sent the threatening letters, the public prosecutor's office said.
The Austrian government recently relaxed all remaining measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19, with quarantine requirements lifted and an end to the vaccine mandate.
The far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) is the only party in parliament that has consistently slammed almost all the measures to contain the pandemic, calling them nonsensical.
