Mon 30 August 2021:
According to police, some 7,000 people rallied in central Athens on Sunday against a new law requiring health staff to acquire COVID-19 vaccines.
The new law, which went into effect on Wednesday, requires all hospital employees to get vaccinated.
The demonstrators waved Greek flags and brandished placards with such messages as “We are not against vaccines, but against fascism” and “Long live democracy.”
“It’s amazing that I’m put on sick leave because I refuse to be vaccinated when for months I have helped to contain the epidemic, I have worked in very difficult conditions,” said Christos Bakakios, an ambulance driver who joined the protest.
A nurse, who gave her name as Lina, said “the Greek health system will collapse if they put all the caregivers who refuse to be vaccinated on furlough.”
“The hospitals are already overcrowded. That would make no sense,” she added.
In an effort to raise vaccination rates, Greece’s government announced array of new limitations on Tuesday, including the termination of free testing for anyone who are still unvaccinated against COVID-19 next month.
As the contagious Delta strain of COVID-19 spreads, the authorities implemented the measures in part to encourage individuals to get vaccinated.
Currently, 99 percent of severely ill coronavirus patients, including those intubated in hospitals, have not been vaccinated.
Since mid-August, workers in retirement homes have been required to get vaccinated.
Ten employees at a home in Volos, in the center of the country, were recently suspended from work.
(Input with Agency)
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