Italy allows suspended anti-vax doctors to return to work
Italian heathcare staff suspended over their refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19 can now return to work, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed on Monday.
Italy become the first country in Europe to make it obligatory for healthcare workers to be vaccinated, ruling in 2021 that they must have the jab or be transferred to other roles or suspended without pay.
That obligation had been set to expire in December, but was brought forward to Tuesday due to "a shortage of medical and health personnel", Health Minister Orazio Schillaci said.
READ ALSO: Is Italy’s government planning to scrap all Covid measures?
Italy was the first European country to be hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, and has since registered nearly 180,000 deaths.
Schillaci first announced the plan to scrap the rule on Friday in a statement saying data showed the virus' impact on hospitals "is now limited".
Those who refuse vaccination will be “reintegrated” into the workforce before the rule expires at the end of this year, as part of what the minister called a “gradual return to normality”.
Meloni said the move, which has been criticised by the centre-left as a win for anti-vax campaigners, would mean some 4,000 healthcare workers can return to work.
This includes some 1,579 doctors and dentists refusing vaccination, according to records at the end of October, representing 0.3 percent of all those registered with Italy’s National Federation of the Orders of Physicians, Surgeons and Dentists (Fnomceo)
Meloni's post-fascist Brothers of Italy party railed against the way Mario Draghi's government handled the pandemic, when it was the main opposition party, and she promised to use her first cabinet meetings to mark a clear break in policies with her predecessor.
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Italy become the first country in Europe to make it obligatory for healthcare workers to be vaccinated, ruling in 2021 that they must have the jab or be transferred to other roles or suspended without pay.
That obligation had been set to expire in December, but was brought forward to Tuesday due to "a shortage of medical and health personnel", Health Minister Orazio Schillaci said.
READ ALSO: Is Italy’s government planning to scrap all Covid measures?
Italy was the first European country to be hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, and has since registered nearly 180,000 deaths.
Schillaci first announced the plan to scrap the rule on Friday in a statement saying data showed the virus' impact on hospitals "is now limited".
Those who refuse vaccination will be “reintegrated” into the workforce before the rule expires at the end of this year, as part of what the minister called a “gradual return to normality”.
Meloni said the move, which has been criticised by the centre-left as a win for anti-vax campaigners, would mean some 4,000 healthcare workers can return to work.
This includes some 1,579 doctors and dentists refusing vaccination, according to records at the end of October, representing 0.3 percent of all those registered with Italy’s National Federation of the Orders of Physicians, Surgeons and Dentists (Fnomceo)
Meloni's post-fascist Brothers of Italy party railed against the way Mario Draghi's government handled the pandemic, when it was the main opposition party, and she promised to use her first cabinet meetings to mark a clear break in policies with her predecessor.
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