A Picton backpackers accommodation has told guests they must be vaccinated against COVID-19 to be able to stay.
Atlantis Backpackers co-owner Sheira Hudson says they have chosen to make the bold decision to protect their guests and feel this is a step all businesses in the accommodation industry should be looking at taking, Stuff reported.
"It is very clear to us as business owners in the accommodation sector that without the vaccine the spread of this virus is just too dangerous," Hudson says. "We don't want to take the risk that people coming in could spread it.
"We know it only takes one [to get the virus] and then it becomes one thousand and one."
Hudson told Stuff she believed that it was a person's choice to be vaccinated or not but still felt her decision was the right one.
Alexander Gillespie, a professor of law at the University of Waikato, believes making COVID-19 vaccines compulsory might become necessary to get vaccine coverage high enough
So far 3.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered to Kiwis - 2.29m are first doses while 1.21m are second doses.
But this is still significantly lower than it needs to be if New Zealand wants to get back to normal and relax restrictions at the border, according to Gillespie.
The Government released a plan last month for a phased border opening, based on its elimination strategy. The plan would eventually allow vaccinated travellers from low-risk countries to enter without quarantine.
Early research showed with the Alpha variant of COVID-19 between 80 and 85 percent of the population would need to be vaccinated before New Zealand could relax border controls. But with the much more transmissible Delta strain, New Zealand would need to reach 97 percent of the population.
Gillespie feels the Government will likely need to use incentives and some degree of compulsion.
"Free vaccinations, if delivered conveniently and safely as part of a targeted public health education campaign to overcome vaccine hesitancy, are an effective tool," he wrote for The Conversation earlier this week. "Lowering the age for vaccinations will also lift the overall percentage of uptake. If all else fails, even cash incentives may help to increase voluntary vaccination.
"Compulsion might become necessary and while the general rule is that people can refuse medical treatments, in times of emergency this can be trumped and regulations could be introduced to enforce vaccination.
"If people choose not to be vaccinated and risk harming others, the Government should intervene, explaining the risk the unvaccinated pose, apart from their potential self-harm.
"It should then pass laws to allow reasonable levels of discrimination against people who refuse the vaccine."
In July, the Government expanded its mandatory vaccine requirements to include workers at ports and airports who are at the greatest risk of exposure to COVID-19.
Workplace Relations Minister Michael Wood last month confirmed vaccination requirements can be written into new employment agreements, but not existing ones unless agreed to.
