Aussies Urged To Get Tested And Boosted As Vaccine, Mask Mandates Ease

Covid Tracker: June 25

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Health experts are urging Australians with Covid-like symptoms to stay home and get tested amid eased vaccine and mask mandates across the country.

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Maria Boultan said a raft of viruses, including the flu, are currently rampant among the community.

“We’ve seen too many people who have symptoms who are going around in the community who perhaps have had a negative RAT test saying, ‘Oh, it’s not COVID, it’s not the flu. I’m okay to be around people’,” Dr Boultan told Nine’s Today.

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The warning comes as Queensland joins NSW and Victoria in relaxing Covid vaccination mandates, including allowing unvaccinated school staff back to work, lifting bans on unvaccinated visitors at health and care facilities, and removing mask requirements at airports.

But as cases continue to rise across the country, along with a myriad of winter viruses, Australia’s chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly is urging people to get their boosters, along with the flu vaccine.

“The flu vaccine (is) very important now, and right across Australia, that’s been made free for most people, but particularly those who are vulnerable of severe flu,” he said.