Members of the National Council of the Slovak Republic (the parliament) voted in favor of a draft law, which grants equal rights to people, who were vaccinated against the novel coronavirus as well as those, who decided against getting an anti-COVID-19 jab, Trend reports citing TASS.
Slovak lawmakers also voted to provide free of charge testing for the novel coronavirus to everyone, who decided against the anti-COVID-19 vaccination.
The draft law received the majority of votes following introduced amendments. The bill is debated upon in a speedy mode and the final voting is expected to be held on Sunday.
The authorities in Slovakia proposed initially to grant extra benefits to all vaccinated residents to encourage mass anti-COVID-19 vaccination in the country. However, mass protests broke out on Friday in front of the parliament’s building against such decision.
As of today, Slovakia is ranked 57th globally in terms of reported COVID-19 cases, which currently stand at over 392,300. A total of over 12,530 people have died of the novel coronavirus infection there, while more than 379,350 have recovered from the illness.
Anti-COVID-19 vaccination was launched in Slovakia on December 26, 2020. However, only 40% of the country’s 5.5 million population decided to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.