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Due to a quirk in the state’s road map,unvaccinated people could enter retail outlets after the 80 per cent vaccine threshold,but were banned at the 90 per cent threshold. Last week’s snap announcement meant they were shut out a week earlier than forecast on the road map.
“The timing and the stop-start nature of the vaccine checking requirement,following freedoms experienced by unvaccinated Victorians,has been extremely challenging for retailers to manage,” Mr Zahra wrote.
He said customer aggression over the past week had been worse than at any other time in the pandemic,with incidents reported in a variety of retailers including department stores,hardware and charity shops,some of which saw the need to hire security.
Toni Van Den Broek,owner of South Gippsland Jewellers in Cranbourne,described the monitoring of vaccine certificates as “torturous”.
“There’s not a lot of communication out there. You ask customers[to show evidence of their vaccine certificate] and they just storm off,” she said. “When these people walk off,that’s our profit going.”
Ms Van Den Broek said customer aggression,combined with a shortage of staff and an inability to afford COVID marshalls,were challenges many retailers currently faced.
“I worry about my staff’s mental health,that’s a real concern. We’ve come back from this long lockdown and all of a sudden we’re getting abused,having to check people in like we’re security policing this.”
Children were also included in the vaccination requirements in another surprise move that Mr Zahra said came without adequate communication or clarity.
“We also received contradictory advice from the department about staff vaccinations,and had to correct this advice with our members,causing great confusion and unnecessary further stress,” he said.
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Mr Andrews has previously said vaccine mandateswould continue until 2023,but last week said the vaccinated economy would last “at least” until the Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix in April.
On Tuesday,Mr Andrews said he “hoped” the restrictions would be released sometime in 2022,by which time most people were likely to have had a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. He said he might say more about the timeline for the vaccinated economy when Victoria’s numbers reach the mid-90s.
Leading pandemic specialists Julie Leask,Catherine Bennett and Tony Blakelyargued inThe Age on Wednesday that a vaccination rate of 90 or 95 per cent was high enough to protect the state from any increased transmission that might happen if unvaccinated people were given the same rights as those who’ve had their jabs.
Professor Bennett,the epidemiology chair at Deakin University,said the government should end the lockout if cases did not surge as a result of unvaccinated people being allowed in retail outlets.
“Going forward,there wouldn’t be an epidemiological argument,but there might be in certain circumstances if there was a large surge in infection rates,” she said.
With Paul Sakkal
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