Health care and care home workers who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine will be suspended from work starting on Sept. 1, Kikilias said, noting that unvaccinated workers would not get a grace period for a previously announced suspension.
From Sept. 13 until March 31, the minister of health announced that every private and public sector worker without a certificate proving vaccination or recovery from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus within the last six months will have to undergo one rapid test per week.
Two tests per week will be required for those working in academia, tourism, restaurants, cafes, bars, and in television, movie, theater, and musical productions.
In addition, also effective on Sept. 13, the government will stop providing free COVID-19 tests and will charge 10 euros (about $12) for a rapid test—a considerably large amount for workers in some of these sectors in a country hit by an economic crisis.
Kikilias also said indoor restaurants, cafes, bars, clubs, and entertainment venues will only be accessible to those who are vaccinated or recently recovered, with checks conducted at the entrance through an app that scans the certificates to verify them.
Masks will be mandatory for all, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, in indoor public areas and in crowded outdoor areas.
Those who are non-compliant with the new measures will be penalized, which includes suspension of work, non-attendance at schools, or getting banned from traveling.
The set of rules were announced as Kikilias said that hospital data for the past two months show that about 90 percent of patients in Greece’s ICUs for the CCP virus are not vaccinated.
“These measures are not punitive,” he added. “They are our duty to all those who went through 18 months of the pandemic carefully, those who lost their shops, jobs, had to work from home to protect themselves.”
