Greek health workers protest mandatory vaccines

Workers at public hospitals in Greece held a five-hour work stoppage Thursday to protest a government decision making vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory for all health care workers in the public and private sector.

About 300 hospital workers rallied outside the health ministry in Athens to protest the measure, which goes into effect on Sept. 1, police blocked the protesters from marching to the Greek prime minister's office.

The government has made clear that no extension will be granted to the Sept. 1 deadline.

Those working in the public and private health care sector and those working in care homes who haven't received at least one dose of the vaccine by that date, or who don’t have a certificate of recent recovery, will be suspended from work.

The public hospital workers’ union said that while it supports the vaccines, it opposes making them mandatory.

“We will not leave defenseless the health care and social care workers who have a personal right to vaccination,” the union said. “Patients are not at risk of catching the coronavirus from health care workers. Hospitals are filling up again with patients suffering from the coronavirus which they caught in the community.”

Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias said those who were protesting against the measure were “small minorities” who frequently protest about an assortment of issues related to the national health system.

“They are in the opposite direction of the majority of Greek society, which wants to protect public health," he said.

Dr. Argiri Erotokritou, who works in a Greek hospital, told the Associated Press that she was protesting for more money for the health sector in order to "combat the pandemic".

Greece has been seeking to boost its vaccination drive with a series of incentives. It has been seeing a steady increase in confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths, as well as hospitalizations and intubations, over the past several weeks.

ICU beds for COVID-19 patients are more than 69% full, while regular COVID-19 wards are 45% full, health ministry figures show.