The Vatican has updated its rules to curb the spread of COVID-19 and will require all its employees to be vaccinated against the virus or to prove they have recently recovered from Covid.
Furthermore, effective January 10, non-essential business travel is temporarily suspended, mask-wearing outdoors is mandatory, FFP2 masks are mandatory indoors, and quarantine rules for individuals who have been in contact with a positive case are adjusted, with no isolation required for those who are fully and recently vaccinated, including with a booster.
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The Vatican made this announcement on January 12.
Similar to restrictions recently implemented by Italy, the Vatican will now require the "Super Green Pass" for:
All employees, interns, and external collaborators; visitors to the Vatican Museums, gardens, and the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo; individuals participating in conferences, seminars, and other events, whose capacity will also be reduced to 35%; and those wishing to dine indoors, such as in a Vatican cafeteria.
The Vatican will evaluate on a case-by-case basis individuals requesting an exemption from the current rules, it specified.
Employees of the Governorate of Vatican City State who do not have the new "Super Green Pass" will not be permitted to access their workplace and will be considered "absent without leave," and thus unpaid for the days missed. More severe sanctions may be taken in the case of prolonged "unjustified absence," the report adds.
The "Super Green Pass," whose scope has also been extended in Italy, is a stricter version of the ordinary Green Pass, which certified that the holder had been vaccinated, tested negative, or had recently recovered from COVID-19. The "Super" pass is granted only to individuals who have been vaccinated or have recently recovered from the illness, which has the effect of imposing even more restrictions on those who are unvaccinated without a medical reason.
The Vatican stated that the new rules were put in place in response to the "progressive worsening of the health emergency."
Four more regions, including the Lazio region of Rome, have just been designated "yellow zones" of low or moderate risk due to rising infection rates.
Since January 3, 11 of Italy's 20 regions have been declared "yellow" under Italy's four-tier restriction system. Mask-wearing outdoors is already mandatory throughout Italy.
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