The Knesset on Wednesday passed the second and third readings of a bill allowing the Ministry of Health to provide personal information to certain official bodies about people who have so far been denied vaccinations for COVID-19.
By law, the information can be passed to local authorities, the director general of the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Welfare officials to contact those who have not been vaccinated to persuade them to get their pictures.
The third reading of the bill was agreed by 30 votes to 13.
The new law also states that “the information will be provided to the authorities subject to an active request and the presentation of a plan to promote vaccination among the population included in the database.”
“An official authorized by the director general of the Ministry of Health will receive the names, ID numbers, addresses and telephone numbers of citizens who are eligible for the vaccine but have not done so,” the law states.
The Ministry of Health also provides information to anyone who received the first dose of vaccine but did not arrive at the designated time for the second.
A Knesset statement issued after the bill was passed “confirmed that in order to reduce the invasion of privacy and prevent misuse of the information, the law requires that the information transferred be used to -only to encourage vaccination and any other use of the data is prohibited. “
The information is only available on a limited list of officers, who will also not be allowed to contact anyone they already know.
Recipients of the information must sign a confidentiality agreement and the data will be deleted within 60 days of receipt.