My Vaccine Passes required at some Council facilities

My Vaccine Passes will be required at Far North District Council service centres, libraries and i-SITE Visitor Information Centres from 10 January 2022 and at Te Ahu in Kaitāia from tomorrow (3 December) when the Government’s new COVID-19 Protection Framework comes into effect.

Northland’s ‘traffic light’ setting under the new framework will initially be red due to low vaccination numbers. That means most public facilities can open, provided there are capacity limits based on 1-metre distancing between people. However, some businesses (e.g. cafés) can only provide contactless services unless vaccine passes are used. Council management has decided to require vaccine passes at 11 sites where contactless service is unavoidable. These are:

• Kaitāia Service Centre, Kaitāia Library, Museum @ Te Ahu and Far North i-SITE Visitor Information Centre at Te Ahu (from 3 December)
• Kāeo Service Centre and library (from 10 January)
• Kerikeri Service Centre from (10 January)
• Procter Library, Kerikeri, from (10 January)
• Bay of Islands i-SITE Visitor Information Centre, Paihia, from (10 January)
• Paihia Library from (10 January)
• Kawakawa Service Centre and library at Te Hononga (from 10 January)
• Kaikohe Service Centre from (10 January)
• Kaikohe Library from (10 January)
• Rāwene Service Centre from (10 January)
• Hokianga i-SITE Visitor Information, Ōpononi (from 10 January)
• Public swimming pools operated by Hapori on behalf of the Council at Kaitāia, Kerikeri, Kawakawa (from 3 December) and Kaikohe (reopening 19 December). 

Chief Executive, Shaun Clarke, says the Council is requiring people who use its services at Te Ahu to show a My Vaccine Pass from tomorrow, because these will be mandatory at the café and cinema while Northland is at ‘traffic light’ setting red. “It would be impractical and unsafe to require vaccine passes at the café and not also require these at the library or service centre which is next to the café. Other councils that operate open-plan, multi-use public facilities are also requiring My Vaccine passes, so this practice will become the norm across New Zealand.”

The Council is delaying the requirement for My Vaccine Passes at 10 other sites until 10 January to give customers time to organise passes or to find out about alternative ways of accessing Council services. “We have an obligation to keep our staff and customers safe from COVID-19, but also want to ensure that people can still access our services. In most cases, there are online alternatives. However, we recognise that these don’t suit everyone. We invite customers to contact us if they are concerned about not being able to access our services from 10 January.”  

Information about other Council services at ‘traffic light’ setting red is on the Council’s website at www.fndc.govt.nz