Unvaccinated healthcare workers to return to posts
Unvaccinated healthcare workers who were removed from their jobs for refusing to get the Covid-19 shots will be allowed to return to their posts before the end of the year, Health Minister Thanos Plevris announced on Monday.
About 6,500 healthcare workers in the National Healthcare System were suspended in September 2021, when the ministry’s deadline for them to get the vaccine expired.
Half of those eventually returned, after getting inoculated.
“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,” the health minister said.
It is the first time the government said that unvaccinated employees could return before the end of the year, which was the ministry’s official timetable.
Approximately 2,200 unvaccinated healthcare workers remain suspended, of whom only 170 are doctors while the rest are nursing and other paramedical and administrative personnel.
In addition, approximately 1,000 unvaccinated people work in the national healthcare system using a certificate of recovery.
