NSW backtracks on making vaccine boosters mandatory for health workers

The New South Wales government will not seek to mandate booster shots for healthcare workers, despite calls from Victoria to change the definition of a fully vaccinated person to include a third dose.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) is currently preparing advice for national cabinet that is expected to recommend expanding the definition of full vaccination against Covid-19 to three shots.

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has pushed hard for the change. Essential workers in that state have already been told they must get their third dose to continue working on site, and Andrews suggested last week the requirement may be expanded to people wishing to access hospitality venues.

Hazzard did not indicate whether the change in approach would also apply to other essential workers.

While Atagi is expected to advise a shift in the definition of a fully vaccinated person to include a third dose, Hazzard said that was a separate issue from making booster shots mandatory.

On Thursday, NSW Labor criticised the government for not having already introduced the booster mandate for health workers, following a Sydney Morning Herald report that showed while 68% of those in their 70s had been boosted, less than a third of people under 40 have had the third shot.

But the secretary of the Health Services Union, Gerard Hayes, told the Guardian he had lobbied the government not to push ahead with a third-dose mandate.

It is not clear how the NSW government would have enforced any mandate, with the Guardian able to reveal that the state has not kept track of how many health workers in the state have received booster shots so far.