ATHENS – Greek health care workers suspended for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 are going back to the job – but they’ll have to meet a number of conditions to do so to ensure public safety.

They were the only ones punished in the civil sector after the New Democracy government let other anti-vaxxers eventually have the same privileges as the vaccinated to go into public gathering places.

Now the unvaccinated health staff – except doctors – who return to work as of Jan. 1, 2023 must wear a high-protection mask and submit to two Coronavirus tests a week, the Health Ministry said,  with no explanation why doctors were exempted.

They are being returned after a court order that the ministry decried but said by which it would reluctantly abide. The suspended had lost their pay during their time off the job.

The decision by the ministry was alsos based on recommendation by its Coronavirus specialists committee, while a decision on the protocol doctors will follow is pending, said the state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency ANA-MPA.

“For doctors, where the greatest concern lies for their return to work, there will be another meeting,” the ministry said, while Health Minister Thanos Plevris said he’ll await the committee’s final recommendations.