The government can’t say how many of its employees are double-vaxxed ahead of next month’s deadline to do so.
But Health Minister John Haggie says word on the street is the number is pretty high.
All public servants have until December 17 to comply with the policy, unless there’s an exemption. But Haggie says current information can’t be accessed or collected due to the October 30 cyber attack.
He says the systems have been down and the staff who collect the information have been directed to other tasks as a result of the attack. However, he says anecdotally he’s hearing the percentage of compliance was in the neighbourhood of 95 per cent before the outage.
The double-vaccination policy applies to all departments, including agencies, boards and commissions. It also applies to staff who serve vulnerable populations in long-term and personal-care homes, schools and child-care providers, staff of businesses where the VaxPass is required, as well as contractors who work with core provincial employees.
The government hasn’t said people will be terminated for not complying, but it’s believed they would initially be placed on unpaid leave.