Vaccinations soar in Italy after compulsory covid pass for work introduced

Vaccinations soar in Italy after compulsory covid pass for work introduced. The introduction of the mandatory COVID pass has already seen more people opt to be vaccinated.

The new rule in Italy seems to be having the desired effect. On Friday, only one day after the Council of Ministers approved the new rule, a 35 per cent increase in vaccination appointment bookings was seen in comparison with the previous Saturday.

“With this decision, Italy is putting itself at the forefront of the world. We are growing at 6% of GDP. This operation can only strengthen our growth and make it structural,” said Minister Renatto Brunetta.

Italy is the first major European country to bring in the COVID pass in a compulsory manner in both the public sector and private sector too. The COVID pass will be compulsory for all employees from October 15.

The government hope that the move will mean that more people will get vaccinated and that this will see the infection rate fall. The government is worried that Covid cases may soar over the winter.

The COVID pass means that anyone who is working needs to be able to prove that they have been fully vaccinated against Covid, have a recent negative test or are recovering from the coronavirus.

Bookings for coronavirus vaccinations are increasing and it seems that many Italians have decided that vaccination is preferable to paying a fee of €15 every three days for them to have an antigen test. If using the antigen test route, then fees of around €200 a month could hit people hard.

The government made the decision to limit the price of tests, but they believe that if the tests were made freely available then less people would choose to be vaccinated.

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