From Tuesday, vaccine passes are no longer required by Hamilton City Council. Photo / Bevan Conley
My Vaccine Passes will not be required for people to enter Hamilton City Council facilities from tomorrow, April 5, after councillors voted last week to revoke the policy.
The decision applies to all council-owned and operated facilities where a vaccine pass has been a requirement for entry since November 30. These include:
• Hamilton City Libraries
• H3 facilities including Claudelands Events Centre, FMG Stadium and Seddon Park
• Hamilton Pools
• Hamilton Zoo
• Waikato Museum, ArtsPost and i-SITE
• Hamilton Park Cemetery chapels and offices
• Te Rapa Sportsdrome
• Enderley Community Centre
• Customer Service Centre
• Council Chambers in the Municipal Building.
H3 and a few other community facilities will still be able to have vax passport requirements implemented by hirers if they wish, but it is the hirers' decision to do this.
While the Government is removing the requirement for vaccines passes from 11.59pm on April 4 for most sectors, individual businesses can decide on their own policies.
The council has followed government guidance and revisited its risk-based assessments on facilities (used at the time to introduce passes) which shows it is safe to remove passes at facilities.
Mayor Paula Southgate said, given the removal of the requirement for vaccine passes by Government, it was timely for the council to review its own policy.
"I asked that this issue come back to the table because the situation has now changed. So while I strongly support the vaccine, I support council's decision today."
Chief executive Lance Vervoort has been steadfast in his position that the wellbeing and safety of the community and staff has always been the priority and decisions have not been made lightly.
"The landscape has changed significantly since last year, it looks like we're starting to move past the peak of cases too. It's great we can lift the vaccine passes at our facilities; it feels like one more step towards normality," said Vervoort.
"The vaccine passes did their job, along with other measures to reduce infection and transmission across public facilities over the last four months."
Meanwhile, city council staff are no longer required to be vaccinated against Covid-19 from April 5.
The council is following Government and health guidance to remove the requirement so its workers, contractors and volunteers will no longer need to be vaccinated or show their vaccine pass to perform their duties at work.
Vervoort said, "We recognise this has been a difficult process for everyone and acknowledge people have been affected in different ways.
"We introduced the policy to help protect staff and the community as best we can from the spread of Covid-19, along with other measures Including face masks, physical distancing and reduced office capacity.
"The policy and measures put in place helped reduce the transmission of Covid-19 in our workplace.
"We are confident that in removing the policy and continuing to apply our control measures in place we will keep our staff safe," said Vervoort.
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