The Australian Government has announced updates to its rollout of COVID-19 vaccines to disability support workers:

“National Cabinet agreed to the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee’s (AHPPC) advice encouraging residential disability support workers to have their COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible.

National Cabinet strongly encourages all disability support workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect their own health and the health of the people for whom they are caring. In August 2021, following redoubled efforts to encourage uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, including by giving disability support workers priority for appointments and improving communications to the sector, AHPPC will consider mandating vaccination for disability workers who support NDIS participants in high risk disability residential settings, to have had at least their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine by 31 October 2021.”

As part of this new approach, Government has released resources to support informing those with disabilities, their carers, and disability workers about vaccines and how to access them. These resources, as well as a guide on how to use them, can be found here:

COVID-19 Vaccination Resources

For further details on changes to how disability workers can access the vaccine, read the full alert here.