Spain will create a register of people who refuse to get a Covid-19 vaccine, part of European efforts to counter public resistance to the new shots.
While the register will be shared with other European partners, it won’t be made public, Health Minister Salvador Illa said in an interview with La Sexta television on Monday. Taking the vaccine is voluntary in Spain and the data will be “treated with the utmost respect for data protection,” Illa said.
On Monday, Spain became the fourth European country to record more than 50,000 coronavirus deaths. The country has been hit particularly hard by the virus, forcing the government to impose a state of emergency in March. When it emerged from a strict national lockdown three months later, management of the pandemic was placed in the hands of regional governments.
While Spain has ordered restrictions on movement and a curfew as cases increase again, the government hasn’t imposed a strict lockdown like those seen in the UK and France in recent weeks.
The number of people dying from the virus has been slowing since November, according to Fernando Simon, the head of Spain’s medical emergency response center. However, data gathered over the holiday period can have gaps in reporting, he said at a press conference on Monday.