The Government will on Monday afternoon reassess whether health and disability workers should be required to be vaccinated to work in their roles.
While workforce-related vaccination mandates have been dialled back over the past six months, - no longer covering Kiwis working in sectors like education, police, and the Defence Force - many in health and disability roles are still required to be vaccinated.
But that could be about to change.
Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson told AM on Monday morning that Cabinet will consider the future of current vaccine mandates when ministers meet later in the afternoon.
"We will be considering the issue of the few remaining workforce-related mandates that we do have," he said.
"I would want to say that the health workforce, along with the education workforce and others, were calling on us to bring in mandates at the time that we did. It was the right decision to bring those in in terms of where we were at with vaccination status and the concern within those workforce settings. We now have to reassess where we are right now today."
Ministers will also decide during that meeting whether to scrap the entire traffic light system, including most mask requirements. If that was to occur, the onus could be placed on individuals to choose when to wear a mask, while individual businesses could also make decisions around mask rules.
The Government introduced vaccination mandates last October for people working in the health and disability sector, describing it as "not an easy decision".
"Vaccination remains our strongest and most effective tool to protect against infection and disease, and we need as many workers as possible to be vaccinated to allow sectors to respond to the pandemic and deliver everyday services with as little disruption as possible," then-COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said.
In March, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced vaccine mandates were being removed except for some sectors, like health and disability, aged care, corrections and border workers.
"I know for many this part of our defence against COVID-19 was one of the hardest," she said. "But mandates meant we reached the levels of vaccination needed to prevent the devastating outbreaks seen across the world."
Then in June, COVID-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said the time had come to end mandates for border workers and corrections staff.
That left requirements for only a group of health and disability roles. The Government said the mandates were necessary for that group as they work with the "most vulnerable, are at a higher risk for contracting COVID-19 or being exposed to any new variants".
Health practitioners who are still currently required to be vaccinated include nurses, dentists, doctors, midwives, pharmacists, and psychologists. The mandates also extend to others working in a public-facing role in pharmacies, aged care and at care and support services funded by the Ministry of Health.
National and the ACT Party have called for vaccine mandates to be phased out to allow unvaccinated workers back into roles amid severe staff shortages.
"I think the conversation should happen to say, well actually what kinda roles can they do and what kinda support can they offer a system that is under huge pressure at the moment," said National leader Christopher Luxon in July.
The protest at Parliament in February and March was driven by people frustrated at ongoing vaccine mandates. The Government, however, rejected their calls for mandates to be scrapped, saying they would be removed when no longer necessary.
