Hamilton City Council no longer requires visitors to its public facilities to wear a mask, following the Government’s decision yesterday (Monday 12 September) to retire the COVID-19 protection framework.
Up until now, Government guidelines specified masks were required indoors at Council’s customer services building, libraries, museum, and pools.
“This doesn’t mean you can’t still wear a mask if you want to – we understand for some wearing a mask provides a sense of safety and peace of mind, or is about protecting others, and that’s completely fine,” said People and Organisational Performance General Manager David Bryant, who led Council’s COVID-19 response.
Council staff will continue to have protective screens and hand sanitiser stations in place in some of the customer-facing areas of their public facilities.
“Despite COVID-19 restrictions being lifted, we’re still going to continue the good hygiene measures we have introduced over the past couple of years as a way to keep our staff and community safe,” said Bryant.
While the worse might be over, Covid, and other colds and flus, are still around and there might be staff shortages and reduced operating hours at Council’s facilities.
“Our teams have put in the hard mahi these past couple of years to keep our services running for our city, let’s continue to be kind and respectful of one another, and show understanding if there are any disruptions at times due to staff shortages,” said Bryant.