Petr Fiala’s government will not introduce compulsory vaccination against Covid-19 but insists that vaccines remain the biggest weapon the country has in the fight against the pandemic.
“Covid-19 vaccination will not be mandatory. However, our attitude towards vaccination has not changed as we still consider vaccination to be the best way to avoid difficult courses of the illness and hospitalization,” Fiala confirmed at a meeting on Wednesday, adding that the government did not find substantiated reasons for mandatory vaccination.
It was also announced that officials had approved an amendment to the pandemic law, with Minister of Health Vlastimil Válek believing the wave of the omicron variant will end at the end of February.
Válek noted that experts are looking for parameters that would help create a model of how to ease restrictions when the pandemic begins to subside.
“We are responding to the experience of the pandemic and the decisions and rebukes made by the Supreme Administrative Court. We have expanded the possibility of issuing measures by the Ministry of Defense and the Interior to comply with the Public Health Act. We are amending the law so that it can withstand the new situation,” said Fiala.
The health minister added that the government is currently preparing further measures that the cabinet will soon announce.
“It is clear to us that we must approve vaccinations for children under the age of 12,” Válek outlined one of the planned steps.
