Vaccine pass required for Nelson libraries

With more COVID-19 cases announced in Nelson during last week, Nelson City Council says it will be changing its policy regarding access to public libraries.

“These changes are necessary to protect the health of staff and visitors to the library,” Council said in a statement released today.

It said the guidelines for all other Council facilities, issued last week, would remain the same. 

“However, from Monday 6 December, visitors to Nelson’s local libraries will now require a vaccine pass for entry at all times. Previously, libraries did not require a vaccine pass to use core services that did not involve close contact with staff.”
 
Incident Management Team Leader, Alec Louverdis said Council wanted to achieve a balance of keeping its facilities open to as many people as possible, while still protecting the health of staff and the public.
 
“We are mindful of having a safe environment, both for staff and visitors, and we have received feedback from many library users that they feel unsafe in places where they may come into contact with people who have chosen not to have the vaccine,” Mr Louverdis said.
 
He said library staff were working on introducing contactless services, such as ‘click and collect’, so that unvaccinated members could still borrow physical items without entering the library.
 
“Council will continue to review the decisions around our facilities and changes may occur, especially if we change to Green or Red on the Traffic Light System,” Mr Louverdis said.