French Polynesia’s president Edouard Fritch says the vaccination law will be amended as opposition to any form of compulsion continues.
Following weeks of protests against the law making Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory, some unions consider strike action.
Fritch said changes may be discussed as soon as this week and would be aimed to clarify the importance of the vaccination.
Last week, President Fritch said the law won’t come into force as planned at the end of this week but on December 23rd.
After that, anyone working in healthcare or with the public will have to be inoculated or be fined US$1,700.
Unions said while they welcome the delay, they regret that the government still wants to impose the law, which was first adopted in August at the height of the latest Covid-19 wave.
Local courts and France’s highest administrative court have rejected challenges to the law although the decision made in Paris last week is only an interim one.
Employers, however, say the law cannot be enforced because it would go against an individual’s medical confidentiality.
Fearing another Covid-19 wave may be building, the government said vaccinations offer the best defence.
Over the weekend, three more people died of Covid-19, raising the death toll of the pandemic to 635.
The number of hospitalised Covid-19 patients has dropped to below 50 after being in the hundreds in August.
SOURCE: RNZ PACIFIC/PACNEWS
