13/01/2022
As flagged, ahead of our Safe Transition Plan, we will be expanding proof of vaccination requirements to a wider range of venues and to apply state-wide.
Effective Monday, January 31, double dose proof of vaccination for those aged 16 and older will be required state-wide for:
- Visitors to public and private hospitals, and aged care facilities;
- All hospitality venues including restaurants, cafes, bars, pubs, clubs, taverns, night clubs and dine-in fast food (roadhouses, service stations and takeaway is exempt);
- Indoor entertainment venues, including play centres, gaming and gambling, theatres, concert halls, museums, cinemas and live music venues;
- Bottle shops;
- The entire Crown Perth complex;
- Major stadiums;
- Gyms, fitness centres and health studios;
- Amusement parks and the zoo; and
- Music festivals and large events with more than 500 people, unless exempt.
Community sport and school-based events, unless at one of the specific venues listed, are exempt from the proof of vaccination requirement.
The date of January 31 aligns with the second dose cut-off date for Group Two workforces as part of the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy. It also gives venues more than two weeks to adjust.
We want the public to be confident in these public settings, and that they’re only mixing with other vaccinated people - people less likely to be carrying or able to pass on the virus.
It reduces the risks posed by unvaccinated people, bringing the virus into busy, populated settings.
Life will be very difficult for the unvaccinated from January 31. No pub, no bottle shop, no gym, no yoga class, no gigs, no dancefloors, no hospital visits.
If you go and get vaccinated today, you can have your second dose by early February.
But if you choose to remain unvaccinated, and at this point, it’s certainly a choice. You’re choosing to put yourself at risk, you’re choosing to put the people around you at risk, and you’re choosing to increase the burden on our health staff.
We’ve seen what works in other jurisdictions, these will be the broadest proof of vaccination requirements in the nation.
And they will not be removed any time soon.
We’ve seen the disaster in New South Wales, when they removed proof of vaccination requirements in mid-December, learned from their mistakes – and are determined not to repeat them.
