Mr. Illa stressed that people who decide not to get vaccinated are making a “mistake” but are still within their rights.
“It is not a document which will be made public and it will be done with the utmost respect for data protection,” he said, the BBC reported. “People who are offered a therapy that they refuse for any reason, it will be noted in the register … that there is no error in the system, not to have given this person the possibility of being vaccinated.”
The comments sparked criticism from some health care professionals.
“The most important thing is to know how the registry will be used,” Jose Luis Cobos, the deputy director of the Spanish General Council of Nursing, told CNN.