A COVID-19 vaccine mandate for disability support workers and in-home and community aged care workers has been delayed after employers raised concerns there was not enough time to ensure their staff were compliant.
The public health direction requiring staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 will be signed on Monday, after what the ACT government said was significant consultation with the sector.
Workers and volunteers will need to receive their first dose of a vaccine by November 15 and their second dose by December 13 under the pushed-back requirements.
Workers in these sectors were originally told they would be required to have had their first vaccine dose by November 1 and be fully vaccinated by November 29.
Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said stakeholder feedback showed the original dates did not give enough time to employers to ensure they met their obligations under the mandate.
"Throughout the consultation process, there was strong support for the public health direction from disability service providers and the in-home and community aged care sector. However, there was some further work to do to ensure definitions were clear and appropriate for the ACT," Ms Stephen-Smith said in a statement on Monday.
While the original scope and definitions were based on advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, stakeholders considered that the ACTs public health direction should be more consistent with the approach taken in NSW.
This is why we have a consultation process and I am confident that the direction to be signed today will meet the needs of the affected sectors while protecting the community.
While the ACT had sought to avoid the use of vaccine mandates through much of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms Stephen-Smith pointed to Commonwealth data which showed lower rates of vaccination about disability care staff when the mandate was first announced.
Figures from the federal government last month showed 87 per cent of NDIS-screened workers had received at least one vaccine dose. The fully vaccinated rate among those workers was 79.4 per cent, which was below the general ACT population.
Meanwhile, the ACT's booster-shot program has opened to people aged over 18 who had their second COVID-19 vaccination dose more than six months ago, with appointments available at government-run clinics, general practice surgeries and pharmacies.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said Canberrans had shown amazing enthusiasm for getting vaccinated and the government expected this to continue into the booster program.
Following advice from [Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation] that people can get their booster dose six months after their second dose, we are pleased to offer boosters to eligible individuals at ACT government COVID-19 vaccination clinics," Mr Barr said.
