As Italy prepares to require COVID green pass in workplaces, employers say much remains unclear – Megan Williams (CBC News) / Oct 12 2021
Violent protests erupt in Rome over new green pass requirements, even as Italy reaches vaccination goal
Despite violent protests in Rome this weekend over new COVID-19 requirements for workplaces, Italy is moving ahead with the strictest measures against COVID-19 in Europe.
Late Saturday, some 10,000 protesters marched through the streets of Rome. Several hundred broke off to storm the headquarters of Italy’s largest union, breaking windows and equipment. Dozens more protesters, also members of a neo-Fascist group, smashed windows in the emergency entrance of a hospital where one of their fellow protesters who had been arrested was being treated as a patient. Four health-care workers were injured and police arrested 12 people, including the head of a far-right group.
Yet on the same day the violent protests erupted, Italy quietly reached a goal it set in March to fully vaccinate 80 per cent of the population over the age of 12, with 85 per cent having received at least one dose.
As countries around the world look for ways to motivate people to get vaccinated and impose restrictions and mandates to reduce spread of the coronavirus, observers say Italy — the European Union country hit first and hardest with more than 131,000 deaths — has struck something of a fine balance resulting in high vaccination rates and little political resistance.
CONTINUE > https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/italy-covid-19-green-pass-1.6207196
