A person holds a banner as port workers gather outside the entrance to protest against the implementation of the COVID-19 health pass, the Green Pass, in the workplace, in Genoa, Italy, on October 15, 2021. The banner reads 'Democracy, freedom, work, human rights'. Massimo Pinca, Reuters
ROME, Italy - An Italian senator was suspended Tuesday for ten days after entering the Senate building in Rome without a coronavirus "Green Pass", which is now mandatory in all workplaces.
Laura Granato, a former member of the once anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) who joined a breakaway group, will be deprived of her daily allowance for the ten days.
The 51-year-old was allowed into the Senate but later reported for refusing to show her "Green Pass", which offers proof of a coronavirus vaccination, negative test or recent recovery from Covid-19.
She had been due to attend a parliamentary meeting on the Green Pass, which she condemned to reporters as a "certificate of obedience".
Since Friday, the pass has been required of all public and private sector workers, in one of the toughest coronavirus regimes in the world.
The measure is intended to boost vaccination rates and avoid further shutdowns, but has sparked pockets of fierce resistance.
Almost 86 percent of Italians over the age of 12 have received at least one vaccine jab, but up to three million workers are believed to be unvaccinated.
They must pay themselves for a regular Covid tests to be able to work, or be declared absent without pay.
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© Agence France-Presse