Health Minister, Yuli Edelstein on Wednesday said he was considering proposing a legislation that would enable employers to prevent workers who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus from coming in to work, and warned the rule would also apply to those in the education system.
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.
His words “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,”
“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.”
He also urged 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.
