The European Union must consider mandatory vaccination in response to the spread of the “highly contagious” Omicron COVID variant across Europe, the European Commission president has said.
According to The Guardian, Ursula von der Leyen said vaccines would be crucial in the fight against Omicron and the EU’s 27 member states should rapidly deploy booster doses.
READ MORE: Healthcare workers in Greece protest mandatory vaccines as COVID cases remain above 6,000.
“One-third of the European population is not vaccinated… not each and every one can be vaccinated – children, for example, or people with special medical conditions – but the vast majority could,” Von der Leyen, who practised as a doctor before her political career, said.
READ MORE: Greece tightens restrictions on unvaccinated as COVID-19 cases reach record high.
“How we can encourage and potentially think about mandatory vaccination within the European Union, this needs discussion. This needs a common approach, but it is a discussion that I think has to be met.”
There is already growing momentum behind mandatory vaccination among the EU member states.
Austria has announced compulsory COVID-19 vaccinations from February next year, while Greece is fining all unvaccinated over-60s €100 (AU$159.07) a month.
READ MORE: Greece to make vaccinations for people over 60 mandatory.
So far, there have been a total of 59 identified cases in the EU of the Omicron variant, all of which have involved mild symptoms or been asymptomatic.
Source: The Guardian.
