Veneto Governor Luca Zaia on Thursday said the regional government had decided to suspend a two-year moratorium on compulsory vaccinations for school admissions. Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin hailed Zaia's decision, saying "the Veneto is falling into line" with the rest of Italy.
Rome had said it would contest the original decision to issue a decree laying down the moratorium until 2019.
Earlier Thursday, Italian doctors wrote to Zaia saying Italy can't afford "spotty" vaccine coverage.
"We can't afford spotty coverage, 85% in one region, 95% in another neighbouring one, because that would expose us to the risk of epidemics, jeopardizing the health of individuals and communities, whose rights are both safeguarded by good vaccine policies," said the National Doctors Guild (FNOMCEO) and the doctors' guild of Venice.
Meanwhile ex-premier and ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD) leader Matteo Renzi accused Zaia of "playing dirty" and risking the health of his constituents.
Education Minister Valeria Fedeli and Health Minister Lorenzin on Wednesday wrote to Zaia to urge him to rethink his government's moratorium until 2019 on presenting vaccines documentation for school admission.
The two ministers urged Zaia to issue "a corrective measure, to safeguard the citizens of his region and in particular minors who cannot get vaccinated for health reasons and for that reasons need 'herd' protection." They said the government's law on compulsory vaccination for school admissions was unequivocal.
Zaia said he would now ask the Veneto's health chief to look into the matter and "see what the determinations may be". Earlier in the day Paolo Romani and Renato Brunetta, the Lower House and Senate whips for Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party, appealed to Zaia to comply with central government's legislation making vaccines obligatory for school admission. "Each additional stall in vaccine coverage represents serious harm to our community, above all the weakest individuals," the whips said in a joint statement.
Rightwing populist Northern League (LN) leader Matteo Salvini said he backed the stance of Veneto's LN governor Zaia and rejected the move by the whips from three-time premier Berlusconi's FI, long his ally. Saying that the two FI whips should "deal with other issues", Salvini said "Zaia is getting praise from many associations: vaccinating (one's children) must be a free choice, not a Soviet obligation". Salvini said "I wouldn't like Italy to have been chosen as a guinea pig by pharmaceutical companies". Zaia has said that his regional government has broken no rules after it granted parents a moratorium until 2019 to present vaccines documentation for school admission. The government is considering challenging the move, which effectively undermines its legislation. "We went and carefully read the national law and my directors saw that it's written inside - a moratorium is possible," Zaia said in an interview published in Wednesday's edition of La Repubblica. He added that his executive has launched an appeal to "defend its own law on vaccines, which has existed for 10 years and works".
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