United Kingdom: The vaccination obligation for health and social support workers has been abolished from 15 March. Is this Italy?

I am relaunching an article in my translation that appeared in baron’s,

The government said on Tuesday that healthcare and social care workers in England would no longer have to have the Covid vaccine as a condition of employment until the end of this month.

The UK government announced on 31 January that it intended to remove the rules making vaccination mandatory based on the results of a public consultation.

This decision was made because the Omicron strain of the virus was less severe than the delta version, and because of the high vaccination rates of people in the UK.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid told parliament in a written statement that more than 90,000 health and social workers and members of the public responded to the consultation.

“The vast majority of the response received supported the lifting, with 90% of respondents agreeing that the requirement for Covid-19 vaccination should be removed as a prerequisite for employment in health and social care settings,” he said. They said. ,

As a result, Javid said that Requirement will be lifted on 15th MarchHowever he warned that frontline workers still have a “professional responsibility” to receive vaccinations.

He said the move is backed by professional health officials.

The UK was one of the world’s worst-hit countries by the coronavirus pandemic, recording more than 161,000 deaths within 28 days of a positive test since 2020.

The number of cases is still high: the latest seven-day moving average is about 232,000 positive tests per day.

But 91.5% of people 12 years of age and older got at least one vaccine, 85.2% got two and more than two-thirds (66.5%) got a third booster vaccine.

The state’s National Health Service (NHS) workforce and social care workers working in places such as nursing homes have the highest vaccination rates.

Javid said vaccinations, as well as new antivirals to come, are the best line of defense to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

The government lifted most of the coronavirus restrictions last month, assessing it was the right time to end the government’s restrictions on public liberties and move on to individual accountability.

The other three nations of the United Kingdom, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which have health policy responsibility, are also lifting their restrictions.