Amendment for mandatory vaccination of over-60s submitted to Parliament
The government on Wednesday presented lawmakers with an amendment on mandatory vaccination measures announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday, attached to a Health Ministry bill that is scheduled to be voted on in Parliament later in the day.
The amendment stipulates that every person born before or on December 31, 1961 and who is a resident of Greece is required to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 “for the imperative protection of public health” before January 16.
Effectively, this means that every person aged over 60 years old will have to be inoculated by January 15. The only exception are people who have either recently recovered from Covid-19 in the last six months and those who can prove to be at risk from vaccination because of other health issues.
Persons in that age group who fail to get vaccinated by the deadline, will be fined 100 euros for every month that they remain unvaccinated. For January only, those that get the first dose by January 15, the fine will be halved to 50 euros. If the first dose is received on or after January 16, the full fine will be imposed.
The fines will stop being collected on the first day of the month following that in which a first vaccine dose was received, while all fines will be automatically collected by the Independent Authority for Public Revenues (AADE).
The sums raised in fines will be used only to bolster the national health system as part of the effort to manage the pandemic.
The amendment also stipulates that the time when the measures cease to be in force are to be decided by the health minister, based on epidemiological data. [AMNA]
