Decision day for extension of scope of Green Pass

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 16 - On Thursday Premier Mario Draghi's cabinet looks set to approve a decree further extending the scope of the Green Pass by making the COVID-19 vaccine passport obligatory for public and private sector workers from the middle of October,.
    There had been talk of the government making the Green Pass obligatory for the public sector first and then extending it to the private sector further down the line.
    But Regional Affairs Minister Mariastella Gelmini said Wednesday that the government was set to make the Green Pass obligatory for both groups at the same time.
    "Immunizing the overwhelming majority of the population is the only way to contain contagion," Gelmini added.
    The government's 'control room' taskforce is gathering to discuss the issue on Thursday and Gelmini will present the executive's measures to Italy's regional government's before a cabinet meeting.
    Draghi had talks with the nation's trade unions on Wednesday about the Green Pass.
    The unions asked for workers to be able to have free COVID tests if the Green Pass becomes obligatory for them.
    League leader Matteo Salvini has made the same request as has Giorgio Meloni, the leader of the opposition, right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
    The government, however, is reportedly reluctant to do this on the grounds that making COVID tests free would lessen the incentive to get vaccinated.
    The green certificate shows that someone is vaccinated for the coronavirus, has recovered from it or has recently tested negative.
    So it is possible for unvaccinated people to get a short-term Green Pass but they need to keep having COVID tests to renew it.
    The vaccine passport is already necessary to do many things in Italy, such travel abroad or on high-speed trains and on domestic flights, attend certain events and to be able to sit at a table inside bars and restaurants.
    Any adult that enters a school, including a parent, must have it and so must all higher education staff and students. (ANSA).