Covid passes will be made mandatory for all employees in health and social care as of 4 October, the Croatian government said on Tuesday.

Although it had been announced earlier that the passes would be mandatory as of 1 October, the national Covid-19 task force today decided to push the date to 4 October, state agency Hina said. A senior official of the ministry for Social Policy, Zvjezdana Bogdanovic, said this was “to give employers enough time to prepare and ensure checkpoints for certificate verification and testing.”

In care homes, the certificates will be mandatory for employees and people visiting their family members. Over 80 percent of social care beneficiaries and 60 percent of employees have been vaccinated against Covid so far, Hina said.

Employees who refuse inoculation and testing “will not be allowed to stay in their workplace,” but Bogdanovic said she “did not believe” that there would be any sackings over this, saying that “the social care system had shown the biggest responsibility in the pandemic.” Substitutes will be ensured for such workers, she said.

It is still not known how much money will be needed to test non-vaccinated employees, she said.

Health Minister Vili Beros said at a separate news conference that it was impossible to tell how long tests for Covid-19 could remain free in the health care system.

“During the initial transitional period, we want the government to pay for tests for everyone who do not want to get vaccinated and for people who had recovered from the disease. However, it is clear that this cannot last forever,” Beros said.

Hospitals must be safe, rather than sites where the virus spreads, he said.

He announced free-of-charge testing for patients and persons accompanying them to their doctor’s appointments or hospitals.