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Victorians may be required to receive their Covid-19 booster before vaccine mandates and restrictions are scrapped in the state.
Premier Daniel Andrews revealed on Thursday it could be as soon as a few weeks before he makes the changes.
He said he was waiting for the latest medical advice on the booster vaccine and immunising children aged between five and 11.
‘We have to see what happens with that,’ he said.
‘That’s not months and months away, that’ll be in the next few weeks, and then we’ll be in a better and stronger position to perhaps have some changes. When we have those changes, if they’re to be made, we’ll make them.’
Victorians may be required to receive their Covid-19 booster before vaccine mandates and restrictions are scrapped in the state
Mr Andrews said he was waiting for the latest medical advice on the booster vaccine and immunising children aged between five and 11
Mr Andrews said he wanted to clarify whether a resident needed to receive a third vaccine in order to be considered fully immunised – even if they have already had two doses.
Residents are currently advised to receive their booster shot six months after receiving their second vaccine.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation is currently reassessing the timeframe in light of the Omicron variant.
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute immunisation expert Margie Danchin argued vaccine mandates should be scrapped sooner rather than later.
‘The ongoing presences of mandates … is creating a very divisive society,’ associate professor Danchin told The Age.
‘You’re having the unvaccinated and the vaccinated divided, and that undermines trust in government, health providers, and it is fracturing relationships in families. It should be far more focused on understanding what the actual risk is.’
Mr Andrews has warned the unvaccinated will not receive the same freedoms as their vaccinated counterparts until well into 2023.
The vaccine mandate has sparked tensions in the community, with several protests staged in recent weeks and shoppers lashing out at retail staff.
Mr Andrews said reports of retail staff being abused while scanning vaccination certificates, including a Dymocks employee who was thrown down an escalator, were ‘cowardly and shameful’.
The vaccine mandate has sparked tensions in the community with several protests staged in recent weeks and shoppers lashing out at retail staff (pictured, a man lays unconscious on the escalator after being attacked by a man who did no want to check-in)
A female worker (right) at Victoria Secret store, who asked a maskless shopper to check-in (bottom left), had a pile of clothes thrown in her face and was then spat on
‘They’re just doing their job. I expect police to throw the book at anyone behaving that way,’ Mr Andrews said.
Australian Retailers Association chief executive Paul Zahra said incidents of customer aggression had drastically spiked.
One small café owner in Melbourne was randomly targeted by anti-vaxxer vandals who sent him a death threat if he ‘does what Dan Andrews says’.
Symeon Kandias arrived for work at Briki café on Monday to find shattered glass on the pavement and a brick through the shopfront window of his shop in Thornbury in the city’s inner north.
‘Do what Dan Andrews says and we will burn down your shop and kill you, motherf**ker,’ a note taped to the front door of the Hutton Street store read.
Deputy Liberal leader David Southwick has called on the Andrews government to follow in the steps of NSW and wind back restrictions for the unvaccinated when the state hits the 95 per cent vaccination milestone.
Symeon Kandias arrived for work at Briki café on Monday to find shattered glass on the pavement and a brick through the shopfront window of his shop in Thornbury in the city’s inner north
Source: DailyMail
