Faced with sharply rising SARS-CoV-2 contaminations, the Italian government decided on Wednesday January 5 to introduce compulsory vaccination for all people over the age of 50. “We want to slow down the contaminations curve and encourage Italians who have not yet been vaccinated to do so”, justified during the council of ministers having adopted this measure the president of the council, Mario Draghi, quoted in a press release of the government.
“We work in particular on the age groups that are most at risk of being hospitalized to reduce pressure on hospitals and save lives. “
In detail, the decree-law imposes the vaccination obligation for people over 50 who do not work and the possession of the vaccination pass for all those over 50 who work, both in the public and in the private sector. In fact, it is indeed a vaccination obligation for all over 50, since the vaccination pass, called in Italy “Reinforced sanitary pass”, is obtained only with a complete vaccination cycle or after recovery from Covid-19.
Italy has 59 million inhabitants, including 28 million over the age of 50, according to the National Statistical Institute.
Health pass in many places
On December 29, the government had already decided to require from January 10 the vaccination pass in transport, hotels, restaurant terraces, fairs and conferences as well as swimming pools and gyms. To take the train and the plane, it was enough until this decision to be in possession of a “basic” health pass, which could be obtained through vaccination but also with a negative test.
The vaccination pass is currently already required for certain professional categories such as health personnel, school personnel and law enforcement personnel.
Faced like its neighbors with a very strong increase in contamination due to the Omicron variant, the Peninsula has recorded in recent days high numbers of new positive cases: more than 189,000 Wednesday and more than 170,000 Tuesday. In total, more than 1.4 million people are currently positive in Italy.