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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
National
Lucy Bladen

ACT to drop COVID vaccine mandates for teachers, health staff

'More transmissible than measles', Deltacron and Omicron XE emerge as new concerns | April 8, 2022 | ACM

The ACT government will drop COVID-19 vaccine mandates for health workers and teachers from next week.

It comes as the ACT recorded another COVID death and new case numbers rose back over 1000 for Monday.

Vaccine mandates will remain in place for aged care and disability workers in the territory.

The changes will come into effect at 11.59pm on May 13.

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith flagged the changes in a ministerial statement to the ACT Legislative Assembly on Tuesday morning.

"The chief health officer has advised the government that she intends to revoke the public health directions for workers in health care and education settings in the ACT from 11.59pm on 13 May," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

Ms Stephen-Smith said the change came following advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, which updated its advice on mandatory vaccinations for high-risk settings.

She said that chief health officer Kerryn Coleman was satisfied there was a high level of vaccination coverage in the eligible population over five, meaning this had reduced the risks of outbreaks and poor health outcomes in school settings.

Dr Coleman's report said that employers will now need to consider whether to implement COVID vaccine requirements, similar to policies that exist for flu vaccines.

"These mandates supported an increase in primary vaccination coverage across employment cohorts at the height of the pandemic and they sought to reduce risk to those individuals who were not yet eligible for vaccination, as well as to protect our most vulnerable members of the community," Dr Coleman said in the report.

"However, with the high level of vaccination coverage across the eligible population aged five years and over, the changing nature of the COVID-19 response and the risk profile that is currently being managed, it is no longer considered an appropriate mechanism for alleviating the public health emergency at this time."

Dr Coleman has also recommended that the ACT's public health emergency declaration be extended by another 60 days. The current declaration is set to expire on May 13.

Chief Health Officer Kerryn Coleman has dropped a vaccine mandate for teachers and health staff in the ACT. Picture: Elesa Kurtz

Vaccine mandates came into place for teachers in primary school and early childhood settings in November last year.

The COVID-19 vaccine was mandated for health care staff who had the highest risk of coming into contact with the virus. That mandate also came into effect in November.

Canberra Health Services chief executive Dave Peffer said in November that 47 workers had confirmed they would not receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

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