Balearics Supreme Court approves three Covid tests weekly for unvaccinated health workers

Balearics Supreme Court approves three Covid tests weekly for unvaccinated health workers

Balearics Supreme Court approves three Covid tests weekly for unvaccinated health workers. CREDIT: Govern Illes Balears Face Twitter @goib

Balearics Supreme Court approves three Covid tests weekly for unvaccinated health workers

A ruling approved today, Thursday, December 16, by the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands, authorises the regional government to require three weekly diagnostic tests from community health workers who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus.

This means that health workers who are immunised will have to prove through a vaccination certificate – the covid passport or another official document – that they have received the vaccine in order to carry out their work. The ruling applies to those working in hospitals, health centers, dental clinics, voluntary abortion centers, major outpatient surgery, dialysis, and mental health centres.

The court said it considers the obligation for unvaccinated health personnel to submit to diagnostic tests entails a “tenuous limitation” of the fundamental rights of those who by law have the obligation to participate “actively” in disease prevention.

Health workers are, “A group especially threatened by the disease. The epidemiological reports provided by the health administration indicate that the risk of suffering from the disease in a greater degree of intensity occurs in unvaccinated people compared to vaccinated people”, stated the judges.

As a result, they consider the annoyance that the analytics may cause is “scarce and practically insignificant” for personnel returning from vacations or new admission. Meanwhile, for the unvaccinated, the discomfort of repeatedly submitting to these tests “is justified due to the seriousness of the pandemic situation”.

“There is thus an objective and reasonable cause of justification, since it is about the protection of the health and life of people. The Supreme Court highlights the non-prevalence of the right to privacy, and the right to the protection of personal data when it is necessary for the prevention of a risk”, reads the order.

Of course, the resolution indicates that the practice of these tests cannot entail any type of economic cost for health professionals, and the administration cannot create data files, or share those results with any other destination or utility. Health workers who come back from vacation, leave, or are hired new, will have to undergo a test with a result not exceeding 72 hours before attending work.

In the Balearic Islands there are around 45,000 people working in the health sector, and about 2,000 people, 4.5 per cent, are not vaccinated, as reported by elpais.com.

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Written by

Chris King

Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com

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