Spain is creating a registry of people who refuse to have a COVID-19 vaccine and will share it with its European neighbors.
Health Minister Salvador Illa made the announcement on Monday even while insisting that vaccination – which was launched there over the weekend – is not mandatory, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
“What will be done is a record, which will be shared with our European partners … of the people who have been offered it and have simply rejected it,” Illa told La Sexta television, according to the agency.
“It is not a document that will be made public and will be done with the utmost respect for data protection,” he insisted.
The main goal was to help track people who are vaccinated against COVID-19 cases, as well as find out why people don’t get shot, a source told The Guardian.
The initiative could also help Spain regain confidence in its tourism sector, which was linked to the earlier spread of the coronavirus, Bloomberg News said.
Spain has been one of the countries in Europe hardest hit by the pandemic, with nearly 1.9 million confirmed cases and more than 50,000 deaths on Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.