Victorian essential workers hit with jab deadline

Covid-19 jabs will be made mandatory for hundreds of thousands of workers in Victoria. Find out if you’re one of them.

Authorised workers across Victoria have been given two weeks to get at least one dose of the Covid-19 jab to be able to continue working onsite.

The mandate, expected to impact hundreds of thousands of workers across the state, will require all people on the authorised worker list have received at least one jab by October 15 and to be double-dosed by November 26.

It will apply to workers in Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the declaration was made after consultation with cabinet and the Victorian public health team.

“It is critically important that we do not see these cases continue to climb and go up and up and up so that our hospital system is under immense pressure even before we open up,” Mr Andrews said.

“We just won't do that to our nurses, to our doctors, to all of our teams of those dedicated health professionals.”

A major moderna vaccine blitz will take place next week across Melbourne. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

The authorised worker list covers dozens of different professions such as firefighters, marriage celebrants, healthcare workers, personal trainers, interpreters, some retail workers, and roadside assistance workers.

A full list of authorised workers can be found here.

The premier said many workers on the list would have already had the vaccine.

“The good news is that many, many of those around one million to 1.25 million authorised workers will already have had a first dose. A bunch of them will have had two doses,” he said.

“This is about going the extra mile to protect the road map to opening.”

Hundreds of thousands of essential workers will be affected by the new mandate. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

But the deadline will not apply to sectors that already have existing vaccine requirements such as those in construction, aged care and education.

The Victorian Government has announced a major Moderna vaccine blitz across south-east Melbourne.

Victoria recorded 1143 new cases of Covid-19 and three deaths on Friday.

Mr Andrews said the deaths include a man in his 80s from Hume, a woman in her 70s from Alphington and a man in his 70s from Moreland.

A total of 80.1 per cent of Victorians have received their first Covid-19 jab, while 49.8 per cent of the state’s population have been fully vaccinated.