Faced with sharply rising Covid-19 contagions, the Italian government decided, Wednesday, January 5, to introduce the vaccination obligation for all people over 50 years old. “We want to slow down the contagion curve and encourage Italians who have not yet been vaccinated to do so”Prime Minister Mario Draghi, quoted in a press release, justified during the Council of Ministers having adopted this measure.
“We work in particular on the age groups that are most at risk of being hospitalized to reduce pressure on hospitals and save lives”, he added.
In detail, the decree-law imposes the vaccination obligation for people over 50 years of age who are not working and the possession of the vaccination pass from February 15 for all those over 50 who are working, both in the public than in the private sector.
In fact, it is indeed a vaccination obligation for everyone over 50, since the vaccination pass, called in Italy “reinforced health pass”, is only obtained with a complete vaccination cycle or after recovery from the Covid. . Italy has 59 million inhabitants, including 28 million over the age of 50, according to the National Institute of Statistics (Istat).
According to Rai News (in Italian) the penalty in the event of an infringement is a fine of between 600 and 1500 euros.
On December 29, the government had already decided to require from January 10 the vaccination pass in transport, hotels, restaurant terraces, fairs and conferences as well as swimming pools and gyms. Until now, to take the train and the plane, it was enough to be in possession of a “basic” health pass, which could be obtained thanks to the vaccination but also with a negative test.
The vaccination pass is currently already required for certain professional categories such as health personnel, school personnel and law enforcement personnel.