Victorian hospitality figures are furious the state still mandates proof of vaccination for customers even as the peak of Covid cases is in sight.
Premier Daniel Andrews has indicated the Victorian vaccine economy will likely end as soon as the peak in Covid cases passes.
Proof of being doubled vaccinated is required to get into clubs, cafes, restaurants, stadiums, events and casinos, despite conflicting advice from leading epidemiologists and it not being required in other states.
Speaking on Thursday, Mr Andrews said now would not be a good time to change the rules, but hoped “it’s only a matter of a few weeks” until they do.
“Things like the vaccinated economy, masks, all sorts of different things will be looked at closely by the public health team, by the Health Minister and we’ll make announcements in due course,” he said.
“People know that it’s probably not a great idea to take rules off while cases are going up, we should wait until we get to the peak, be on the other side of that and then we can make some further changes then.
“We’re certainly talking about weeks, rather than months.”
Melbourne restaurateur Chris Lucas said that wouldn’t be soon enough.
The CBD operator said the restrictions were “business-damaging” and accused the Premier and his health team of being out of step with the rest of Australia.
“This bloke is extending state of emergency when there is no emergency and keeping mandates, QR codes and vaccinated economy restrictions which is killing small and big business,” Mr Lucas told the Herald Sun.
It follows reports in the same newspaper on Thursday that hospitality workers wxjmtzywere being abused by customers while trying to enforce the vaccine mandate.
Mr Andrews called the behaviour “appalling”.
“Anyone that’s abusing staff, that’s absolutely disgraceful. It’s just appalling,” he said.
Deakin University’s chair of epidemiology Professor Catherine Bennett told the Herald Sun on Thursday “there isn’t a health argument for the vaccine economy” to still be in force.
“It could be anything but a health stance. I can’t say what it is, but at the end of the day, the epidemiologist argument fades pretty quickly if you reach high vaccination rates and background immunity,” she said.
But University of Melbourne school of health sciences head Bruce Thompson told 3AW on Thursday while it was good to question the rules, the vaccine mandate might still be needed.
“I think it could be worth questioning ‘is this actually in any way stopping any further spread of the virus?’ Arguably it could be, because you’re insisting that people who are in a restaurant, for example, are all vaccinated,” Mr Thompson said.
But Mr Thompson said rules across different industries and for workers were “confusing”.
“I think this is the time now to sit back and just start working out where the spread of the virus is actually happening,” he said.
“If it’s not occurring in hospitality anymore, then yes, we can relax restrictions.”
The debate comes as Queensland ended its check in and vaccine requirements for many venues across the state on Thursday, including pubs, clubs, cafes and restaurants, stadiums and theme parks.
Vulnerable and high-risk settings are the only areas where visitors and employees must be vaccinated.
Western Australia also changed its Covid rules on Thursday, but proof of vaccination is still required.
