This is a world first.
"In Ecuador, vaccination against Covid-19 has been declared compulsory", the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health announced in a press release on Thursday, specifying that "the obligation applies from the age of five" .
The ministry argued that the decision was in accordance with the Constitution: the law on health specifies that the executive power can "declare compulsory vaccination against certain diseases, under the terms and conditions that the national and local epidemiological reality requires", explains the press release.
Vaccination will not, however, be compulsory for people with medical contraindications, upon proof.
To read also "If it protects our children, so much the better!"
: vaccination of 5-11 year olds, subject of reflection for parents
Ecuador, which made it compulsory last week to present a vaccine pass to participate in public events, access shopping centers, restaurants, cinemas or theaters, has therefore decided to move up a gear.
Today, 69% of the 17.7 million Ecuadorians have been fully immunized and around 900,000 people have received a third booster dose in the country.
The vaccine obligation, a rarity at the global level
So far, only four countries have made vaccination compulsory for adults. Two central Asian states with authoritarian rule, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, declared it in July. In Indonesia, vaccination against Covid has been mandatory since February 2021 under penalty of sanction but only 35% of Indonesians were vaccinated on December 1. In the Pacific, the Federal State of Micronesia also announced in July compulsory vaccination for those over 18. Finally, New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific with wide autonomy, has made it compulsory for all adults from the end of December.
In Europe, Austria was the first country in the European Union to want to impose vaccination on all its adults.
The measure, announced in November, will be effective in early February, when the German neighbor has launched a similar procedure.
In France, the High Authority for Health has so far only recommended Monday, December 20 the vaccination of children from 5 to 11 years old.