Russell McVeagh shutting the door to unvaccinated staff, clients and visitors

Thursday, 14 October 2021

Non-vaccinated soon will not have access to Russell McVeagh premises.

Russell McVeagh says it will ban anyone entering its offices who has not had both Covid-19 vaccination jabs, from November 1.

That includes clients, staff and other visitors.

“From November 1, only those people who have received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine will be able to come into our offices,” chief executive Jo Avenell said.

“If someone has not had both doses of the vaccine, we ask that they support our policy by communicating with us away from the offices.

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Hutt South MP Ginny Andersen, Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins, Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard, Lower Hutt Mayor Campbell Barry and National List MP Chris Bishop at an event on Thursday to promote Super Saturday to encourage people to get vaccinated.

“Our board and partners strongly support vaccination as an important step to help New Zealand progress towards reducing the risk of Covid-19 in our communities and enabling all of us to live and operate in a safer, more open environment and economy.”

The firm conducted a survey of its 320 partners and staff on October 5, and 98 per cent said they intended to be fully vaccinated.

“Many people are concerned about unvaccinated people being in our office and a number of people live with or come into contact with people who are considered vulnerable,” Avenell said.

She said some people in the firm, and the wider community, were uncertain about vaccination.

“We respect the rights of people to choose whether to vaccinate.

“We wish to proactively manage any potential risks for all concerned from these choices, and therefore we request people visiting our office to inform their Russell McVeagh contact of their vaccination status before they enter our offices.”

Covid response minister Chris Hipkins announced on Monday that from January 1 schools would not allow staff who had not had both vaccinations on to school grounds.

By November 15 all staff and contractors entering a school must have had their first jab.

Secondary schools will be required to maintain a register of their students’ vaccination status, and require masks for assemblies.

The number of new community cases of the Delta variant was the highest it had been in seven weeks at 72 positive tests confirmed on Thursday.