How you could get a Covid jab at work: Companies will offer Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to their staff as rollout ramps up with 43% fully jabbed
- Workplace vaccine providers can now apply to give Covid jabs at businesses
- Pfizer and Moderna will be the main vaccines delivered through workplaces
- The jabs will likely be rolled out in bigger companies with thousands of staff
Australian employees will be able to receive a Covid-19 vaccine at their workplace from October.
Providers of the Covid-19 vaccine will now be able to apply for accreditation to deliver the vaccine at workplaces, much like the annual flu vaccine.
Pfizer and Moderna will be the main vaccines delivered through workplaces, but AstraZeneca will be ordered if needed.
Australian employees will soon be able to receive a Covid-19 vaccine at their workplace. Pictured: Sydney commuters
The jabs will likely be rolled out in bigger companies with thousands of employees such as Coles, Woolworths and the big banks which already give out flu shots.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said the workplace vaccines would start in October. So far 43 per cent of over 16s are fully vaccinated.
‘This program will make it even easier for people to get vaccinated, while recognising the eagerness of businesses to help,’ Mr Hunt said.
‘It will allow Australia to further increase the overall size of the Covid-19 vaccination workforce, and to use many offers of assistance from vaccination administrators and Australia’s business community.’
Businesses are not allowed to seek payments from patients to administer the vaccine.
It comes amid calls for businesses to mandate employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said businesses had a key role to play in the pandemic response.
‘In the end, businesses are responsible for health and safety,’ he told the Nine Network.
‘They are also responsible for who comes into their business or who works in their business.
‘Each business is going to tackle this different unless they are told that they’re in aged care or childcare or healthcare, that it is mandatory.’
More than two-thirds of Australians aged over 16 have received their first dose of the Covid vaccine, while more than 42 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Members of the public at a Covid-19 vaccine pop-up vaccination clinic at Ashfield in Sydney