Coronavirus: Italy does not rule out making …

he Italian government announced this week that does not rule out making the coronavirus vaccine compulsory if “in the next few months” the inoculation does not reach the two-thirds of the population necessary to think about mass immunity. Spain, for its part, announced on Monday that it would keep a register of people who refuse to be vaccinated, a list that can be shared with other countries in the European Union.

The announcements came a day after the start of vaccination in Europe, where on December 27 began to immunize the population of different countries with the Pfizer vaccine. The continent faces a significant increase in cases, accompanied by tightening restrictions to control the spread of the new variant registered in the UK.

Italy

According to the Italian Deputy Minister of Health, Pierpaolo Sileri, vaccination “for now it will be voluntary, but without massive buy-in to the vaccine, we will be forced to impose it “.” We must reach two thirds of Italians in the coming monthsThe official said in an interview published by the newspaper La Stampa.

Since Sunday, 7,609 people have already been vaccinated. As of Tuesday, authorities reported that 470,000 weekly doses of the vaccine produced by Pfizer will begin arriving in Italy, which will first be applied to healthcare workers and then to those over 80 years of age.

The projection made in the last few hours by the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, is that the country may vaccinate 13 million people by the end of March.

While celebrating the long-awaited arrival of the vaccine, researchers from northern Italy claimed that there is an “Italian variant” of the coronavirus in circulation since August. “It precedes the variant which only appeared at the end of September in the UK and then spread to Europe, including Italy, and could also be its precursor,” said Arnaldo Caruso, president of the Italian Society of virology, in television announcements.

Since the start of the pandemic, the country has recorded a total of 2,056,277 cases and 72,370 deaths from coronavirus. Last month began the most aggressive part of the second wave of infections that began in October, reaching more than 40,000 new cases in one day on November 13. From that point, according to official data, new infections began to decline slowly, reaching 10,400 in 24 hours on December 26.

But the arrival of the new variant of the coronavirus could open the doors to a third wave, experts fear, especially if protective measures such as distances, chin straps and compliance with rigid regulations imposed by the government for the holidays. end of year celebrations.

Spain

On Monday, the Spanish Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, reported that the government will keep a register of people who refuse to be vaccinated against covid-19, which will be shared with other countries of the European Union.

“What will be done is a file which, in addition, will be shared with other European partners (…), with people who have been and simply rejected it (…) for the reason that that is to say in a use of their legitimate freedom ”, explained the person in charge in a television interview, while specifying that no one will have to be vaccinated.

“This is not a document to be made public and it will be done with the greatest respect for data protection, as is done with other processing», He assured.

Illa reiterated that it is important to vaccinate: “what we ask of you is that when you are summoned, come,” he said. Added the Spanish Minister of Health.

Although the minister did not specify for what purpose this recording will be made, some local media claim that this could lead some people to face travel restrictions within the European Union.

Since the start of the pandemic, Spain has recorded 1,879,413 infections and 50,122 deaths from covid-19.