Skopje, 1 December 2021 (MIA) — The state won’t enforce a vaccine mandate or mandatory testing for the public sector as proposed by the Infectious Diseases Commission because there are “workers who cannot bear the financial burden [of PCR testing] and don’t want to be vaccinated” so “the companies would then have to lay off those workers,” Minister of Health Venko Filipche said Wednesday after the government decided Tuesday to introduce another vaccination incentive: Family doctors will be given 30 denars per vaccinated patient if 70 percent of their patients get a covid shot. Health workers ought to be aware how important it is for more people to get vaccinated, Minister Filipche said, adding that family doctors had up to 2,500 patients, with 1,000 patients per doctor on average, so, he noted, the incentive should not be dismissed. "Family doctors are the ones who are in direct contact with patients, who turn to them for health care and advice,” Filipche said. “In that sense, this measure is well thought out and can be realistically implemented.” The one-time financial incentive will be given to family doctors in 2022, by late spring or early summer, based on the results they achieved. The possibility of introducing vaccine mandates was not excluded, Filipche said, but health authorities were following the examples of other countries and learning from their experiences in the coming period. Regarding companies' concerns about closures if the delta or omicron strains were to spread among their employees, the health minister said lockdowns were not being considered now that “we have almost 50 percent vaccination coverage [among people over 18],” he said. "But we don’t know what could happen,” Filipche continued. “This is why these appeals are important. On the other hand, what would happen to workers who cannot bear the financial burden [of PCR testing] and don’t want to be vaccinated? This means the companies would then have to lay off those workers.” “This is why appeals are needed, even in large companies, employers should appeal to their employees to get vaccinated,” Filipche added. Asked if the omicron strain had reached the country, the health minister said some 50 samples for sequencing would be taken by Friday and the results of the sequencing would be released next week. mr/