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Italy To Introduces COVID Pass For All Workers

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

(Worthy News) – Italy will become the first European Union member state to make its COVID-19 “Green Pass” mandatory for all workers despite massive protests.

The pass, a digital or paper certificate showing someone has received at least one vaccine dose, tested negative, or recently recovered from the virus, was to enable ease travel among EU states.

But Regional Affairs Minister Mariastella Gelmini confirmed that the measures would be extended to workers from next month to combat coronavirus infections.

“We are heading towards a mandatory Green Pass not only for public sector workers but also private sector ones,” she explained. “The vaccine is the only weapon we have against COVID, and we can only contain the infection by vaccinating a great majority of the population.”

Failure to have a Green Pass could result in workers being suspended and losing their pay.

It wasn’t immediately clear if it could be used as grounds for dismissal.

Several other European countries use the health pass for leisure activities and travel, but Italy is the only nation that made it mandatory for all public or private sector workers

Not everyone agrees, and protests have been held in several Italian cities.

Opponents of the Green Pass say it violates human dignity and freedoms and is a back-door way of forcing people to vaccinate.

Italy’s government claims it is a tool to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, which officially claimed 128,000 lives on a population of more than 62-million.

Though more than 60 percent of the population over the age of 12 is fully vaccinated, authorities express concern about the contagious Delta variant.

Italy’s measure comes after thousands of miles away. U.S. President Joe Biden ordered mandatory COVID-19 jabs for some 100 million workers at large companies and federal government servants.