MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Vaccination mandatory in Argentine province of Jujuy

Unvaccinated provincial civil servants will face sanctions if not jabbed, Morales warned.

The Argentine province of Jujuy is making vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory for all civil servants effective Monday.

“I have issued Decree Agreement 696 that provides in Article 1 the mandatory vaccination for all public employees and we are inviting the private sector, in general, to adhere to the provision,” said the Jujuy governor in the report of the Emergency Operational Committee (COE).

Gerardo Morales also asked the provincial Legislature and the Judiciary branches together with local city councils to join the initiative

Civil servants will be required to have received at least one dose of vaccine.

“At this point people who were not vaccinated simply what they have to do is go to their workplace and ask for permission to go get vaccinated at any of the vaccination centers that the province has,” the Governor said.

Unvaccinated civil servants will be banned from entering their workplaces and the day's pay will be deducted.

The Governor has also asked employers in the private sector to follow suit.

In addition to that, he has announced he would be signing another decree making immunization compulsory for those willing to ride the province's public transport network.

Morales belongs to the Radical Civil Union (UCR) party, which is a part of former President Mauricio Macri's Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) coalition, under whom a bill was passed in 2018 making vaccination mandatory in case of a pandemic.