Page 1455 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 June 2022
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The Equity to Access program also continues to offer opportunistic vaccinations across the ACT’s public and private hospital network to inpatients who are not up to date with their vaccinations. Canberra Health Services also collaborates internally with services such as mental health teams to provide home visits to some community members for a COVID-19 vaccination. In addition, the program has provided in-reach vaccinations to detainees at the Alexander Maconochie Centre and Bimberi Youth Justice Centre, and Canberra Health Services has partnered with Calvary Public Hospital Bruce to deliver a needle phobia clinic for community members who are unable to receive a vaccination through mainstream clinics or primary care.
The clinic also provides an avenue for patients to receive other vaccinations or blood tests to monitor their health while they are under sedation for their COVID-19 vaccinations that they would otherwise be unable to access. Many of the people accessing this clinic have had traumatic experiences during previous vaccination attempts. The feedback we have received tells us that being able to access this dedicated service has had an enormous impact on these individuals’ health and wellbeing.
At 11.59 pm on Friday 13 May, the public health directions mandating COVID-19 vaccines for staff working in health care, certain schools and early childhood education and care facilities were revoked by the Chief Health Officer. The requirements for workers in the healthcare and education sectors to be vaccinated has been an important part of the ACT’s COVID-19 outbreak response. However, the situation has now evolved, and our high level of vaccination coverage across the eligible population has reduced the risk of outbreaks and adverse impacts on health outcomes. The removal of these mandates is consistent with the ACT government’s commitment to ensuring that our public health response to COVID-19 is proportionate and guided by the expert advice of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, or AHPPC.
It is important to note that the removal of the public health vaccination mandates does not remove the need for employers to take a responsible risk management approach to staff vaccination. Indeed, Canberra Health Services has already moved to ensure that staff working in patient-facing settings are appropriately vaccinated as part of their work health and safety responsibilities. Vaccine mandates for workers delivering aged and disability care services remain in place. This is consistent with the recommendations of AHPPC, as the risk of outbreaks and severe illness among the people these workers care for is still high. The Chief Health Officer will continue to monitor the situation for these workers to ensure that public health directions continue to remain proportionate.
On 12 May the ACT government announced that the use of the Check In CBR app would no longer be mandatory. The Chief Health Officer advised the government that the requirement to register for, and use, the Check In CBR app in the remaining settings could be removed at this point in our COVID-19 response, with public health officials focused on reducing transmission in high-risk settings. With effect from 11.59 pm on 13 May, licensed venues, registered clubs, night clubs, strip clubs, brothels and non-ticketed events are no longer required to use the Check In CBR app.
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