Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said Wednesday he was considering proposing legislation that would enable employers to prevent workers who aren’t vaccinated against the coronavirus from coming in to work. He warned the rule would also apply to those in the education system, the Times of Israel reports.
Edelstein said at a press briefing on the virus outbreak that education workers who refuse the vaccine may even have to pay for a virus test every 48 hours if they want to keep teaching, according to Hebrew media reports.
His remarks came as the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign has slowed down recently, with around 130,000 shots administered on Tuesday, according to Health Ministry figures — far below the country’s capacity, reached in previous weeks, of over 200,000 injections in a day.
In the last three days, only about 65,000 Israelis a day have been vaccinated with their first shots, even though vaccinations are now available to all Israelis aged 16 and over.
It is possible that teachers who refuse to be vaccinated will need to pay from their own pocket for private tests every 48 hours,” he continued. “I am not going to fire anyone, but if someone is not vaccinated, then that is their problem.” “We are checking legislation that will prevent people who are not vaccinated or who have not been tested in the previous 48 hours from working with the public — for example, to stand before a class full of students,” Edelstein said.
Urging the population to participate in the mass vaccination program, Edelstein said that the so-called green passports — a document that will enable vaccinated people to attend certain public venues and events and potentially travel abroad without quarantine — will soon be introduced.
While certain essential services must always remain open to the entire population, he said, there are venues that will be made available only to those who are vaccinated or who have recovered from COVID-19. The intention is to prevent those locations from becoming infection hubs.
“I strongly advise that anyone who wants to enjoy hotels, gyms, and some cultural events to go and get vaccinated,” Edelstein said, referring to a Health Ministry lockdown exit plan shown to ministers the day before, which set February 23 as a possible opening date for those locations.
As it is legally problematic to completely ban those who do not want to take the shots, a path will be available to those with fresh negative COVID-19 test results from the past 48 hours.
But health officials hope to find ways to make getting tested more difficult — thereby further encouraging more people to go for the vaccine — including charging for tests, limiting their numbers and cutting back on testing locations.
One official said, “If they are required to pay a few dozen shekels [for a COVID test] every couple days so they can enter their workplace, gym or restaurant, it will encourage them to get vaccinated.”
Unnamed senior Health Ministry officials said they were working on formulating an exact list of activities that would be difficult to access for the non-vaccinated.
