Spain is creating a register of people who refuse to receive a COVID-19 vaccine – and will share it with its European neighbors.
Health Minister Salvador Illa made the announcement on Monday, although he insisted that the vaccination – which was launched there over the weekend – is not mandatory, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
“What will be done is a record, which will be shared with our European partners … of those people who were offered and simply rejected,” Illa told La Sexta television, according to the agency.
“It is not a document that will be made public and will be done with the utmost respect for data protection,” he insisted.
The main objective was to help track those who were vaccinated against COVID-19 cases, as well as to find out why people are not getting the injection, a source told The Guardian.
The initiative could also help Spain regain confidence in its tourism sector, which was linked to the previous spread of the coronavirus, Bloomberg News said.
Spain is one of the countries most affected by the pandemic in Europe, with almost 1.9 million confirmed cases and more than 50,000 deaths as of Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.