Of the 74,260 employees in the Croatian healthcare system, 63.4 percent have been vaccinated with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 57.8% have received both doses, which means that 32.3% of health sector employees have not received a single dose, the Jutarnji List daily reported on Thursday.

Doctors make up the majority of those who have been inoculated, with 81.4% having received one dose and 76.69% both. Doctors are followed by dentists, with 66.74% immunised with one dose and 61.69% with both doses.

The situation with nurses remains cause for concern because a staggering 40.51% have not been vaccinated.

These figures speak in favour of making vaccination compulsory for health workers in order to protect patients who cannot be admitted to hospital without proof of vaccination, recovery, or a COVID-19 test.

These rules currently do not apply to health sector employees, who resist vaccination.

It seems that the introduction of compulsory vaccination in some sectors will be impossible to avoid, not only in Croatia, because of the need to make health and some other institutions catering for vulnerable groups safe for their beneficiaries.

Compulsory vaccination for health workers has been introduced by Italy, Hungary, and Greece and more recently by France, the daily says.