QLD’S COVID-19 VACCINATION MANDATE FOR CAFES, PUBS AND CLUBS SET TO EASE

People will no longer need to prove they have had two doses of a vaccine before heading into cafes, pubs and clubs from 1:00am on April 14.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said 90.5 per cent of Queenslanders aged 12 years and over have received at least two doses of a COVID vaccine.

“The restrictions we had in place did their job, keeping our community safe and encouraging vaccination,” she said.

Since December, the state required people entering hospitality and entertainment venues to be fully vaccinated and check in with a mobile app.

It was a part of measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 as the state opened its borders to then-hotspots like New South Wales and Victoria.

Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said the state has passed the peak of transmission in its secondary Omicron wave, which was fuelled by the BA.2 sub-variant, and backed the easing of the mandate.

“What we are saying is this particular measure has no public health benefit now because of the proportion of people that are vaccinated,” he said.

“To put this burden on a lot of these facilities — pubs, clubs, cafes, showgrounds — for the sake of this small group of [unvaccinated] people, the public health benefit is just not there,” he said.

 

Source: Queensland’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for cafes, pubs and clubs set to ease – ABC News

 

Daniel Andrews considers scrapping Covid vaccine mandates in Victoria

Unvaccinated Victorians may finally be able to hit the pub as Daniel Andrews considers ditching strict Covid vaccine mandates.

The Victorian Premier said he may scrap the rules which allow only vaccinated patrons to enter hospitality and entertainment venues once the peak of the Omicron subvariant BA.2 is reached.

That peak may occur by mid-April with modelling predicting around 20,000 Covid cases a day and 500 patients in hospital.

Mr Andrews said rules won’t be changed just yet but suggested they may be altered once infections start to drop.

‘Let’s get past this peak in subvariant Omicron cases, and then we’ll have options and one of those, hopefully, will be dealing with things like the vaccinated economy and all sorts of other rules,’ he said on Wednesday.

‘Things like iso rules can potentially change, things like the vaccinated economy can potentially change, all those things can be looked at.’

Mr Andrews last year flagged Victoria’s rules would remain in place until at least this weekend’s Formula One Grand Prix and possibly throughout the entirety of 2022.

 

Source: www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/daniel-andrews-considers-scrapping-covid-vaccine-mandates-in-victoria/ar-AAVUccE?ocid=BingNewsSearch