According to an announcement by Greece’s Health Minister Thanos Plevris, unvaccinated healthcare workers who were removed from their jobs for refusing to receive the COVID-19 immunisation will be allowed to return to their posts before the end of the year.
Approximately 2,200 unvaccinated healthcare workers remain suspended. Only 170 are doctors while the rest are nursing and other paramedical and administrative personnel.
Another 1,000 unvaccinated people work in the national healthcare system are using a certificate of recovery.
It is estimated that 6,500 healthcare workers registered in the National Healthcare System were suspended in September 2021, when the ministry’s deadline for them to get the vaccine expired.
About half of those chose to eventually get vaccinated by the end of 2021, Kathimerini reported.
“Instead of making the decision at the end of the year, we will look at the epidemiological data of October, and based on that a decision will be made whether or not they will return earlier,” Minister Plevris steted.