Northern Territory scraps vaccine mandates for workers, closes Howard Springs

The Northern Territory has announced it will end its strict vaccine mandate in a bold move towards “living with Covid”, along with more changes.

The Northern Territory will scrap its worker vaccine mandates to provide some relief for industries battling chronic staff shortages and in a move towards “living with Covid”.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Chief Minister Natasha Fyles announced that the mandate, along with the public health emergency, will finish on June 16.

Under the policy change, individual workplaces will be allowed to decide whether their staff must be fully vaccinated to go to work.

The Northern Territory will scrap vaccination mandates for key workers and end its public health emergency next week. - Picture: Richard Walker

Prior to the announcement, people in the NT who worked in a wide range of industries — including teachers, hospitality workers and beauticians — were required to be triple vaccinated to do their jobs.

“We are moving into a world where we are living with Covid,” Ms Fyles said.

“We will end the public health emergency; the vaccine mandate will also end.

“From June 16, we will transition from a state of public health emergency to living with Covid as it becomes endemic in the community.”

However, new legislation means the chief health officer still has the power to issue a number of directions, including rules for isolating, mandating masks and vaccines and reporting test results, the NT News reports.

It is unclear if high-risk workers must continue to comply with the vaccine mandate. Ms Fyles said additional information would be provided to the community and businesses in the coming week.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said the Northern Territory would officially transition to living with the virus on June 16. Picture: Floss Adams.

The changes come as the Marrara Covid-19 vaccine clinic is set to close on June 30, following high rates of vaccinations. The Howard Springs quarantine facility will also cease operations.

Ms Fyles said the Commonwealth and NT governments would ensure the Howard Springs facility could be stood up again at any point over the next year if required.

“The (resident) numbers have decreased significantly,” she said.

“In fact, there’s been only a handful of people in the facility through the month of May.”

Ms Fyles said 52 Territorians had died with coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.

“We have got through this so much better than we first feared back at the start,” she said.

”Living with Covid means we’re now in a place where we can revoke many of the CHO directions such as exclusion zones, lock in areas, safety measures for businesses, quarantine workers and facilitate major events, crowd limits and mandatory vaccinations,” she added.