Thousands of Queensland nurses and health staff will be able to return to work as Queensland Health is expected to scrap its COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
Health Minister Shannon Fentiman told ABC Radio Brisbane that Queensland's chief health officer had made the decision that the mandate was no longer necessary.
From Monday, a two-week consultation period with staff, unions, patient safety advocacy groups and other stakeholders will begin.A final decision will be made by the acting director-general of Queensland Health after the consultation concludes. "If someone wants to now reapply for a job with Queensland Health who is not vaccinated for COVID, there'll be treated the same as any other worker."The health minister said Queensland Health will review cases of disciplinary action which were, at the time, taken out against workers that refused to get vaccinated.
"We still want to encourage people if they are at high risk, or feel they're at high risk, to take additional steps to protect themselves."Dr Griffin said people were still being admitted to hospital with COVID and "some of them are still quite unwell"."While we talk about it a bit less publicly, it's very clear that it hasn't gone away," he said.
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