New vaccination requirements coming into force on Friday have created a "nightmare" for some Warrnambool businesses, with one popular cafe losing a key staff member for a month.
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From 6pm on Friday all businesses where staff and customers come into close contact - including hospitality, beauty and hairdressing, physical recreation, and entertainment - will only be open to fully vaccinated people and will need all staff to be fully vaccinated.
For Bohemia Cafe owner Steve Hickman the deadline, which coincides with Victoria reaching 80 per cent of over 16s fully vaccinated, is a hammer blow.
"That's just horrible, it's a nightmare. I don't know what to say," Mr Hickman said when told about the changes.
"One of my most important staff is only due to have his first jab this week, so he won't be able to work until November 25."
Premier Daniel Andrews had said regularly over the past six weeks both the person "drinking the beer" and the person "serving the beer" at a venue would have to be vaccinated, but this hadn't been clarified in the Department of Health advice or state roadmap until last week.
The new rules on Friday will also close a loophole that allowed many businesses to keep trading without staff and patrons being fully vaccinated as long as they stuck to lower patron caps.
The Department of Health confirmed to The Standard the rules never intended to allow businesses to have the option not to check staff and customers' vaccination status.
Hotel Warrnambool owner Steve Phillpot said he didn't know how the transition to enforcing customer vaccination would go.
He had been operating under the tighter caps to give staff time to get fully vaccinated, so hadn't been checking customer vaccination status, but said he was prepared for the transition.
"We will have a COVID marshall at the door to enforce it," he said.
"If someone doesn't want to get vaccinated but they want to go into a venue I imagine they will be unhappy. But it doesn't matter if you agree with the policy or not, those are the rules."
After many venues used the loophole to remain open regardless of vaccination status, Friday's rules will be much tighter. Hospitality will not even be able to open for takeaway service unless all staff are fully vaccinated, although customers will still be able to collect takeaway without showing proof of vaccination.
Mr Hickman said the Restaurant and Catering Association was lobbying the Victorian government for an exception to be made for regional hospitality businesses, sticking to the original November 26 authorised worker deadline, but they were not hopeful.
"The government lied when they told us the original rules," Mr Hickman said.
He said the business would be able to keep running in the interim, "but not in a way where we will be able to make money".
The Department of Health said non-essential retail was still open to unvaccinated people after the Friday deadline, but that would be changing soon. That would also mean workers in the sector would have to be fully vaccinated.
Essential retail will remain open to all regardless of their vaccination status. Workers in essential retail still have until November 26 to get their second vaccine dose.
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