Health authorities go door-to-door to lift Cherbourg vaccination rate

Health authorities will be going door-to-door offering Covid jabs from Thursday in a last-ditch effort to increase this Queensland town’s vaccination rate.

Desperate Queensland health authorities will be going door-to-door offering the Covid-19 vaccine to residents in jab-hesitant Cherbourg, in a last-ditch attempt to protect the community from an impending outbreak.

Just 33.7 per cent of the Aboriginal community had received a single jab as of Monday, less than half of Queensland’s current rate.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk revealed two teams of Queensland Health staff would begin going door-to-door, street-to-street in Cherbourg from Thursday, offering the Pfizer jab to residents.

Just 33.7 per cent of Cherbourg residents have received a single dose of Covid-19 vaccine.

Under the campaign health officials can provide the vaccine to consenting residents on the spot.

A similar program has already commenced in Yarrabah, near Cairns, where the vaccination rate is about 43 per cent of the population with one dose.

Ms Palaszczuk said time was running out for all Queenslanders to get the jab.

“I’ve stopped asking,” she said.

“Now I’m telling you – get vaccinated. What are you going to tell the doctors and nurses when you turn up sick (and) you haven’t been vaccinated.”

It comes as new vaccine hesitancy data shows Queensland’s willingness to get the jab is improving.

A total of 16.4 per cent of Queenslanders are vaccine hesitant — 7.4 per cent unwilling to be jabbed and 9 per cent on the fence — according to the latest data from the Melbourne Institute.

Queensland is still the second most vaccine hesitant state in the nation, behind South Australia.

Researchers from Melbourne Institute suggest that Australia’s vaccine hesitancy rates point to the country achieving a ceiling of 88.2 per cent full protection against Covid-19.

As it stands the latest data shows 61.79 per cent of Queenslanders are fully protected, while 76.13 per cent have had one jab.

An average of 17,118 Queenslanders are turning up each day to get their first jab, a statistic that should be closer to 40,000 a day for the rest of this week if the state wants to hit 80 per cent full protection by December 17.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Covid-19 vaccine booster program could begin as soon as November 8 after the drug regulator approved the use of Pfizer as a third dose for those 18 and older.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration gave provisional approval on Wednesday, with the government’s vaccine advisory body the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) expected to hand down its decision shortly.

People will be eligible for their third dose six months after getting their second.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the booster rollout would begin in aged care and disability homes as a priority and “immediately” in Victoria, which is struggling with high case numbers,