The Government has announced all remaining government vaccine mandates will end on 26 September 2022. This applies to health and disability workers.
Some employers may still require workers to be vaccinated due to health and safety.
Some health and disability sector workers are required to be vaccinated, because they come into close contact with people who are likely to get seriously ill if they get COVID-19.
The COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Order 2021 (Vaccinations Order) describes who in the health and disability sector is covered by the Vaccinations Order.
COVID-19 booster vaccinations are also mandated for workforces covered by the Vaccinations Order.
This means workers in these sectors must get a booster within 6 months (183 days) of completing their primary vaccination course.
From 11:59pm 7 July, workers who are not in public facing roles in certain healthcare environments and/or do not provide healthcare services directly to patients will no longer be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The following people are still required to be vaccinated:
- health practitioners providing health services to patients in person (such as doctors, nurses and dentists)
- workers in medical centres/GP practices and pharmacies (such as receptionists and assistants) whose role involves being within 2 metres or less of a health practitioner or member of the public for 15 minutes or more
- workers who are employed or engaged by certified providers (such as hospitals, rest homes and residential disability care settings) who, as part of their ordinary duties, have face-to-face contact with people to whom healthcare services are provided
- care and support workers — workers employed or engaged to provide care and support services within a home or place of residence.
Eight vaccines commonly administered overseas are recognised for workers who fall under a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination order.
The recognised vaccines are:
- Pfizer/BioNTech
- AstraZeneca (Oxford)
- AstraZeneca/Covishield (Serum Institute of India)
- Moderna
- Sinopharm
- Sinovac (CoronaVac)
- Covaxin (Bharat Biotech)
- Novavax (Nuvaxovid, NVX-CoC2373)
- Janssen (Johnson and Johnson).
The primary course of vaccination means 2 doses for all the recognised vaccines except Janssen (Johnson and Johnson) — only 1 dose is required for this vaccine.
If your employees are not covered by the vaccine mandate, you can choose if you want to require your employees to be fully vaccinated as a condition of their employment.
Employers must carry out a health and safety risk assessment and consider all other public health measures they can use to reduce the risk of COVID-19 in their workplace.
Vaccinations can only be used as a measure if the risk of contracting and transmitting COVID-19 at work is higher than it is in the community.
Before you decide if vaccination requirements are appropriate for your workplace, we encourage you to read the guidance on Employment New Zealand and WorkSafe New Zealand for advice.
COVID-19 controls at work – employer vaccination requirements | WorkSafe