VATICAN, Feb 18 (Reuters) – The Vatican has told employees they could risk losing their jobs if they refuse to be vaccinated with COVID-19 without legitimate health reasons.
A decree by Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, the current governor of the Vatican, said that obtaining a vaccine was a “responsible choice” because of the risk of harming others.
The Vatican, with an area of 108 hectares, is the smallest state in the world, has several thousand employees, most of whom live in Italy. His vaccination program began last month, and Pope Francis, 84, was among the first to receive the jab.
The seven-page decree says that those who cannot be vaccinated for health reasons can be given another job, probably if they had contact with fewer people, but will receive the same payment even if the new job is demoted.
But the decree said that those who refuse to be vaccinated without sufficient reason would be subject to a specific provision in a 2011 law on the rights and obligations of employees.
The 2011 law says employees who refuse “preventive measures” could be subject to “varying degrees of consequences that could lead to dismissal.”
The decree was signed on February 8 and subsequently posted on the governor’s website.
Pope Francis is a strong supporter of vaccines to stop the spread of coronavirus.
“It’s an ethical choice because you play with your health, with your life, but you also play with the lives of others,” he said in an interview with an Italian television station last month.
The Vatican has made vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory for journalists accompanying Pope Francis on his trip to Iraq next month.
Bertello, who signed the decree, tested positive for coronavirus in December and went into self-isolation.
There have been fewer than 30 cases of coronavirus in the Vatican, most of them among the Swiss Guard, who live in a communal barracks. (Reporting by Philip Pullella Editing by Gareth Jones)