Germany Approves Mandatory Vaccination for Health Care Professionals
German deputies approved today (10) a law that obliges health professionals to receive the vaccine against covid-19, a first step before the extension of the obligation to the rest of the country's population, scheduled for the beginning of 2022.
The bill, which aims to protect particularly vulnerable groups, was approved by a large majority in the Bundestag (German Parliament's lower house), where the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the Liberals (FDP), the political forces that comprise the new government coalition, have a parliamentary majority.
The measure was approved with 571 votes in favor and 80 against.
Everyone who works in hospitals and nursing homes must be vaccinated or cured of covid-19.
The measure also applies to employees of establishments for the reception of people with disabilities, outpatient clinics, doctors' offices, emergency services or socio-educational centers.
The bill says that health professionals have a "special responsibility" because they are "in close and intensive contact with groups of people at high risk of infection and serious or fatal illnesses".
Employees targeted by the new measure will have until March 15, 2022 to prove full vaccination, otherwise they will not be able to work.
Several healthcare establishments, in particular nursing homes in the federated states of Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg, have become, in recent weeks, major sources of contagion, with a high number of deaths.
The chain of contagion by the new coronavirus is sometimes triggered by an unvaccinated employee, which has reopened the debate about mandatory vaccination for all.
Health professionals are, on average, more vaccinated (almost 90%) compared to the general population (69.3%), according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
With the decision, Germany joins other European countries such as France, Italy, Greece or the United Kingdom, which have already included mandatory vaccination for health professionals in the law.
Hit by a new wave of covid-19 cases, authorities in Germany have already expressed their willingness to go further and impose new measures.
The new German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, intends to ask the Parliament to vote, by the end of the year, the mandatory vaccination, which, if approved, could take effect in February or March.
A survey released this Friday shows that 68% of Germans are in favor of mandatory vaccination for all adults, a number that is increasing
However, German authorities fear that the measure will arouse the anger of opponents of health restrictions, mobilized since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic in the country.
The new German Health Minister, Karl Lauterbach, warned today that fines for those who refuse to be vaccinated will be "unavoidable".
Covid-19 has caused at least 5.28 million deaths worldwide, among more than 267.88 million infections by the new coronavirus recorded since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest report by the Agence France-Presse.
The respiratory disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, detected at the end of 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China, and currently with variants identified in several countries.
A new variant, Ômicron, classified as "worrying" by the World Health Organization (WHO), has been registered in southern Africa, but since the South African health authorities issued the warning on November 24, infections in the skin have been reported. minus 57 countries from all continents.
Text translated using artificial intelligence.
