
Hamilton City Council will decide tomorrow (Tuesday 30 November) on a policy which could see My Vaccine Passes become a condition of entry at its facilities for people aged 12 years and older.
The Government announced today Hamilton will move to ‘orange’ in the COVID-19 Protection Framework from 11.59pm on Thursday 2 December. Council facilities and services will remain largely unchanged from Alert Level 2 under the new framework.
However, if the new policy is approved, vaccinations would be mandatory for visitors to Hamilton City Libraries, Hamilton Pools, Hamilton Zoo, Waikato Museum, ArtsPost and i-SITE, Hamilton Park Cemetery, Te Rapa Sportsdrome, Enderley Community Centre, parts of Hamilton Gardens and the Customer Service Centre and Council Chambers in the Municipal Building. This change would come into effect at Hamilton Pools on 3 December and other facilities from 14 December.
My Vaccine Passes are already a condition of entry at all H3 venues including Claudelands Event Centre, Seddon Park and FMG Stadium from 3 December.
Chief Executive Lance Vervoort said safety of staff and the community is front of mind in this decision making.
“Many of our staff are in roles which are critical to keeping our city going. We cannot have a situation where our Zookeepers are unable to feed the animals, or our water treatment staff cannot run our plants. We haven’t made this recommendation lightly. Full risk assessments have been undertaken on roles and services to inform our recommendation to Council.”
Vervoort acknowledged this means some members of the community will not have access to Council facilities in the same way they do now.
“We’ve learnt a lot in the past two years about changing the way we do things, like offering click and collect services at the library and offering virtual tours of our Zoo and Museum. We’re continuing to look for innovative ways to provide Hamiltonians with access to these services in a safe and COVID-friendly way.”
At the same time, Council is consulting with staff on a policy that will require all Council employees who are required to perform their duties at work to be vaccinated against COVID-19. A decision on the staff vaccination policy will be made on Friday 3 December.
Read the report to Council here.
More information around Council services and facilities at ‘orange’ will be available in the coming days at hamilton.govt.nz/COVID-19