GREEK health workers walked out on a five-hour strike today in protest at a decree making vaccination against Covid-19 compulsory across the sector.

Hundreds of hospital workers rallied outside the Health Ministry in Athens against the rule, which comes into force on September 1.

The government has threatened health and care workers who have not yet had at least one dose by then with suspension or even dismissal.

The Pan-hellenic Federation of Public Hospital Workers said: “We will not leave defenceless the health and social care workers who have a personal right to vaccination.

“Patients are not at risk of catching coronavirus from healthcare workers. Hospitals are filling up again with patients suffering from coronavirus which they caught in the community.”

The Communist Party of Greece said the government’s bid to bully and intimidate health workers into getting jabbed with threats of dismissal was a bid to scapegoat health workers to evade responsibility for its handling of the crisis.

But Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias said most Greeks supported the requirement as a public health measure.