Mandatory Covid passes in health and social care institutions are being introduced "to increase safety rather than punish anyone," Health Minister Vili Beros said on Wednesday.

“We are legally obliged to protect patients and employees in the health care system from the virus entering and spreading… If anyone has a better proposal than the measures we are introducing, they should say so publicly,” Beros said in a press release carried by state agency Hina.

Beros said that making Covid passes mandatory in health and social care services as of 1 October was “the most effective way of preventing the virus from entering hospitals and care homes.”

“They are the most at-risk groups with the most difficult consequences in case of infection, and the proposed measures have been confirmed in practice as the most effective,” he added.

Beros said that every employee in these two sectors would have to show a certificate of vaccination against Covid, or recovery from Covid, or a negative Covid test, when coming to their workplace. He said the majority of employees in these two sectors had been vaccinated already.

“Those who have not been vaccinated yet, or recovered, and refuse to be tested free of charge without a justified reason will create unnecessary problems for themselves and the system they work in,” Beros said.