A legal challenge to mandatory COVID-19 vaccine requirements for NSW health workers has been launched in the state’s Supreme Court, as virus infections continue to climb by more than a thousand cases a day. 

Sydney solicitor Tony Nikolic filed the suit against Health Minister Brad Hazzard and Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant last night, with the matter due to be heard for the first time on Friday.

The lawyer argues the public health orders requiring vaccination of “a broad class of workers” are illegal and unconstitutional.

“It is our view that vaccine compulsion strips citizens of their basic human rights, including their right to work, their right to bodily integrity and their right to informed consent to medical treatment without coercion,” Mr Nikolic’s law firm — Ashley, Francina, Leonard and Associates — said yesterday.