Compulsory vaccination for health personnel comes into force on Wednesday, September 1 in Greece, under penalty of dismissal for the recalcitrant. The measure was announced on July 12 during a speech by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. All unvaccinated health workers in the country are threatened with suspension.
Read alsoGreece to make vaccination of caregivers compulsory
Some 10,000 unvaccinated professionals to date are affected by a threat of suspension in the country, or 10% of the total workforce, according to estimates by the National Federation of Public Hospital Workers. The ambulance service will notably have to operate with 1,245 fewer professionals, according to the economic newspaper Naftemporiki.
Several opposition rallies
«We are pushing health workers to be vaccinated but we are against compulsory vaccination which poses a democratic problem“Dimitris Kourouvalakis, member of the Executive Committee of the National Federation of Public Hospital Workers, told AFP. This federation “will call for a strike and a rally outside the Ministry of Health in the event of suspensions“, Warned its president, Michalis Giannakos, to the Greek news agency ANA.
Read alsoIn Greece, 7000 demonstrators against the compulsory vaccination of caregivers
Several rallies were held on Wednesday morning in front of various hospitals across the country to oppose compulsory vaccination and to highlight the consequences caused by the dismissal of staff on the functioning of health services. The government has taken steps to encourage as many people as possible to get vaccinated to fight the spread of the Delta variant. Among the patients hospitalized on artificial ventilators, almost all are not vaccinated.
At the beginning of July, the Greek parliament adopted a bill making compulsory the vaccination of nursing staff and employees of retirement homes. More than 5.7 million of the 10.7 million people in Greece are fully vaccinated.
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