Covid-19 vaccination: Special state government push fails to boost number of kids being jabbed
SA’s sluggish paediatric Covid-19 vaccination program is failing to significantly boost rates of children being jabbed, sparking a new plea for parents to protect their kids.
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SOUTH Australia’s sluggish paediatric Covid-19 vaccination program is failing to signficantly boost rates of children being jabbed, sparking a new plea for parents to protect their kids.
Latest SA Health data shows only 848 children aged 5 to 11 were inoculated with their first vaccination during the first half of a special state government push – 594 of them at 40 school sites.
This compares with more than 21,000 children vaccinated in the last week of January.
More than 60 per cent of SA’s 148,253 eligible youngsters are immunised with either Pfizer or Moderna. That increase is less than 1 per cent of total students since the school jab sites were launched on May 27.
Nearly half of reception to year 6 students are double jabbed, a rate which has surged in recent weeks.
Government officials say the school based clinics were designed to target areas of low vaccination and as such, the clinics were very small.
They said many children sick with Covid were not eligible as they must wait three months before a next dose.
Latest figures show 1783 students and 414 staff had Omicron in the past week, compared with 5620 students and 847 staff in the last seven days of the chaotic term 1.
Meanwhile, an Emergency Management Council meeting has been called for Monday.
Senior government sources have said authorities are concerned about rising Covid numbers interstate.
STUDENT NUMBERS SLUGGISH
Opposition education spokesman John Gardner criticised the student vaccine rate, which he said meant nearly three times as many children had caught Covid as were vaccinated at Labor’s school jab hubs.
With just over a dozen students being jabbed per hub, he said it raised serious questions about the hubs’ effectiveness.
“The raw figures show (Premier) Peter Malinauskas talked a big game and poured money into his own political solution that has failed to deliver real-world outcomes for our students,” he said.
“We want Labor’s vaccine program to work for our community, but it’s time for photo op Pete to let health professionals be in charge of keeping our children safe, not Labor spin doctors.”
Education Minister Blair Boyer hit back, saying it was bewildering that the Opposition thought it was better to do nothing.
“We make no apologies for pulling out all stops and trying everything we can to protect our community against Covid,” he said.
“Protecting our community and protecting lives will always be at the forefront of every decision we make.
“We purposefully selected locations in local government areas with low vaccination rates, because we knew that was where we needed to focus our attention.
“Primary school settings were always going to be more challenging because students need to have parents or guardians present when receiving a vaccination – unlike high school settings.
“We know that vaccination is the best protection for our community and we need to do everything possible to protect our children, their families and our communities. Every new vaccination is a good thing.”
The state hit a new 600,000 Covid case milestone on Sunday.