Page 2560 - Week 09 - Thursday, 16 September 2021
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coverage. We are well on the path to achieve that; not just ACT residents aged 16 years or over, but for the entire population who are eligible for a vaccine at this point in time—that is, Canberrans 12 years and older. We will not leave teenagers behind.
Based on current trajectories, the nation is anticipated to reach the 70 per cent and 80 per cent vaccination milestones in mid to late October and early to mid November. On our current trajectory, the ACT could reach 90 per cent by the end of this period. This is our goal. The ACT’s vaccination rollout has already yielded some of the strongest results in the nation. Seventy-five per cent of the eligible adult population has now received at least one dose of a vaccine and 51 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Until eligible Canberrans have had the chance to get vaccinated, public health measures are required to stem transmission of the virus and keep the community safe. After an extended COVID-free period for this city—amongst the longest in the nation—the current lockdown has been incredibly challenging for Canberrans. The ACT government has acted at all times on the expert health advice to suppress the spread of the virus and to protect Canberrans’ health. We have only opened up economic sectors when we have been advised it is safe to do so, as advised by the Chief Health Officer. One of the sectors permitted to recommence work has been the construction industry, which began reopening under strict COVID-safe requirements from 3 September.
Further minor economic and social restriction easing was announced on Tuesday, to come into effect at 11.59 pm this Friday 17 September. This includes enabling small businesses currently permitted to operate click-and-collect services with two people, to increase that to have up to five people in a business at any one time, or one person per four square metres, whichever is fewer; allowing real estate agents to conduct in-person house inspections by private appointment; and enabling social and recreational sport to go ahead with up to five people, including things like social golf, tennis and rowing, but not including coaching, training or competition activity.
Access Canberra and WorkSafe ACT have been conducting patrols of construction sites and businesses to ensure work is conducted in a COVID-safe manner. This is done to protect not only the workers on those sites but the entire community. Given the impact that the outbreak and the necessary lockdown have had on businesses and employees, the ACT government has implemented a series of support initiatives. The ACT and commonwealth governments are jointly funding COVID-19 business support grants of up to $20,000 for employing businesses and $7,500 for non-employing businesses, for those businesses that have experienced a 30 per cent decline in turnover as a result of the current lockdown.
Yesterday we reached agreement with the commonwealth government to provide additional funding through this program—another $10,000 for all employing businesses and $3,750 for non-employing businesses. The commonwealth has also agreed to partner with the ACT government for additional one-off top-up payments to be made for larger businesses. This grants program is a massive undertaking; it is the largest such program in the territory’s history. We are focused on properly assessing
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