Covid-19 vaccination: urgent review to investigate dramatic slump in child jab rates
More frightening figures on SA’s flagging child vaccination efforts have triggered a rush to plan a new campaign.
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South Australia’s sluggish paediatric Covid-19 vaccination program is under urgent review and a new campaign is being drafted to stop a concerning slump in the rates of children being jabbed.
Latest SA Health figures show 597 children aged 5 to 11 were inoculated with a first jab last week despite thousands more school students falling ill.
In stark contrast, more than 21,000 children were vaccinated in the last week of January.
Almost 58 per cent of SA’s 148,253 eligible youngsters are immunised with either Pfizer or Moderna but the rate has barely risen in five weeks.
Figures show 23.4 per cent of children are double-jabbed.
But the sluggish rate has sparked an urgent SA Health review while cabinet’s Emergency Management Council has ordered a new public campaign to boost numbers.
Senior government sources said officials are exploring how to make it easier for families to get jabbed amid growing levels of “complacency”.
Chief public health officer, Nicola Spurrier, issued “strong advice” for parents to book their children in immediately.
She said it takes longer for children to be considered fully vaccinated because youngsters receive two jabs, eight weeks apart.
Each dose is a third the size of those for older than 12.
“The importance of children vaccinations cannot be underestimated,” said Professor Spurrier, a paediatrician.
“We are indeed seeing rates for this cohort (children) begin to plateau. Because some children have already experienced a recent Covid infection some families may be choosing to delay their vaccination.
“As we see the emergence of the BA. 2 (Omicron) variant and public health measures ease, we are certainly pushing for these rates to improve.”
SA Health is investigating a series of strategies to help increase vaccination rates such as new “Super Family Walk-in Weekends” and other school holiday initiatives.
Federal authorities are targeting indigenous communities to get children vaccinated.
A recent national forum for state and territory health chiefs heard research showed parents most wanted to visit GP clinics and were reluctant to have their children jabbed at the school gate. Doctors also want an urgent “blitz”.
Prof Spurrier said: “We know families with young children are very busy but we currently have ample capacity at all our major clinics with various opening hours.”
Government data shows almost 30,000 children younger than nine have contracted Covid-19 during the pandemic – a rise of more than 10,000 cases in the past month.
There are almost 40,000 sick pre-teens or teenagers, aged 10-19, which has risen similar levels in four weeks.
Almost a third of active, or infectious, cases are children or teenagers. Almost 6000 students were absent for Covid reasons on Friday as isolation rules and illness crippled schools. There were last night nine sick children in hospital.
Health Minister Chris Picton revealed an urgent review.
“While there’s been a majority of families who have come forward to protect their kids, unfortunately the number of new first doses has dried up,” he said.
“We’re concerned about lagging booster rates generally and also slowing first dose children’s vaccination rates.
“I’ve asked for urgent work on how we can encourage more families to come forward.
“This aligns with the work underway regarding adult booster doses.”
Australia’s vaccine rollout chief Lt Gen John Frewen, said: “We’re working with all providers and the states and territories to encourage more parents to get their kids vaccinated.”
SA Health reported seven deaths but fewer infections, hospital patients and ICU cases.
A key bridge to cross
Grange couple Damian and Lauren Thompson were so keen to get their children vaccinated for Covid-19 they drove them to Murray Bridge.
That was the first place they could find an appointment for youngsters Jude, 8 and Mila, 6 after the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation extended the country’s vaccination program for children aged five to 11.
That was back in mid-January. Jude and Mila are both now fully vaccinated – a fact that gives their parents peace of mind as they carry on their busy lives as a young family.
“We just searched the bookings from the end of December, and the soonest we could get in was January 16 in Murray Bridge,” Ms Thompson said.
“We wanted to get them vaccinated to protect vulnerable family members and the community and so that life could return to normal, or as it was pre-Covid, sooner.”
Don’t miss out on those precious antibodies
By Clare Peddie
Hospitals in SA will be rapidly overwhelmed with Covid patients who didn’t bother to take the recommended antivirals within five days of infection, medical bodies say, unless more people heed the advice of health authorities.
The state’s deputy chief public health officer, Dr Emily Kirkpatrick, said treatments previously supplied to 900 South Australians in hospital or a Covid Care Centre were now available through a GP referral.
She said people at “high risk of becoming seriously ill with Covid” included those aged 65 and over with one or more other disease or chronic condition, or under 65 with two or more chronic conditions, such as diabetes and a respiratory disease.
“These people, even (if) fully vaccinated, should immediately book an appointment with their GP or health care provider via telehealth after testing positive for Covid to discuss eligibility and access to treatments,” Dr Kirkpatrick said.
“If you are not fully vaccinated you may also be eligible. We advise all patients to use the online symptom checker at HealthDirect to help you monitor your symptoms and to identify if you would be eligible and benefit from treatment.
“No matter where you live in South Australia, your GP or healthcare provider can either provide you with a script or refer you to a Covid Care Centre or Local Health Network in your area via our centralised online system, where you can access the treatment you need.”
Two new oral antiviral treatments can be prescribed, or an intravenous monoclonal antibody infusion can be arranged.
So far the government has secured more than 500,000 courses of Paxlovid® (nirmatrelvir + ritonavir) by Pfizer, 300,000 courses of Lagevrio® (molnupiravir) by Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD), and over 131,000 courses of XEVUDY® (sotrovimab) by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK),
Chairman of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Daniel Byrne said people often felt quite well for the first few days. But it was in the second week that their lungs deteriorated, clotting went “haywire” and organs shut down.
“If cases explode, if we’re going to have 8000 a day, or 40,000 a week, the hospital system will be overwhelmed,” he said. “These drugs will prevent people from ending up on a ventilator, so we need to get them (into people) in that window of those first five days.”
Australian Medical Association vice-president Dr Chris Moy, also a GP in Adelaide, said the problem was “people not taking responsibility, for getting vaccinated, or responding” to text messages from SA Health and prompts to fill in the questionnaire.
“If they tell you to go see a doctor to get a treatment, get to a doctor as fast as possible, because you need it, even if you’re not feeling unwell,” he said. “That may make the difference between ending up in hospital or not, or dying or not.”
Kim Wilkinson, 39 of Murray Bridge, has a rare auto-immune disease and though double-vaccinated with AZ, she became ill with Covid in late January. SA Health arranged for her to receive the first IV infusion of Sotrovimab at the Murray Bridge Hospital.
“I went from wanting to shoot myself to bouncing off the walls in a matter of two days,” she said. “I don‘t want to even think about where I’d be if I had none.”
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