Queensland has lowest booster and child vaccination rates for Covid-19 in the country amid fears of new wave

The Sunshine State has some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country leaving experts concerned about the impact it will have when the next wave hits.

Queensland has the lowest rate of eligible people boosted and children vaccinated against Covid-19 in the whole country as experts warn it will lead to a greater impact when the next wave hits.

Just 65.2 per cent of eligible Queenslanders have received their booster shot as of November 2, which is the lowest rate in Australia, according to recent vaccination data from the Australian Government.

This is compared to 83.5 per cent of those in Western Australia who’ve received their third dose of the vaccine, as well as 80.7 per cent of those in the Australian Capital Territory.

Queensland also has the lowest vaccination rate of those aged five to 15 years out of all the states and territories with just 52.8 per cent of children having one dose and 44.7 per cent having two doses.

Infectious diseases expert Dr Paul Griffin said relaxed messaging on how the state was dealing with the pandemic may have led to “complacency” from Queenslanders in regards to getting the jab.

“Having the lowest rates in the country does leave us susceptible to greater impacts than we should necessarily see when we have that virus in our population, just like we do at the moment,” he said.

Infectious diseases expert Dr Paul Griffin is worried about Covid “complacency”.

It comes as experts have warned of another Covid-19 wave set to hit the state, with fears case numbers could spike over the Christmas holidays.

In New South Wales, case numbers have already started to rise at a concerning rate forcing a school to shut and the chief health officer to issue a warning last week.

Cases in NSW have hit more than 12,400 in a week, up from 8,800 cases just two weeks prior, with 809 people in hospital and 17 in the intensive care unit.

The rise in cases has forced a high school in Sydney’s northwest to shut down on-campus learning and return to remote learning for the remainder of the week after more than 30 per cent of secondary teachers had tested positive to Covid-19.

Principle Rita Sakr of Tangara School for Girls told The Courier Mail the decision was made based on advice from NSW Health.

“It was underpinned by a lack of teaching staff to supervise classes onsite, but also the ability of those with minor symptoms to run their classes remotely to ensure continuity of learning,” she said.

“This short period of online learning is also aimed at preventing the further spread of Covid – at this point we are only aware of one secondary student testing positive.”

Meanwhile in Victoria, virus hospitalisations have soared with the chief health officer Brett Sutton warning the public of the “continued and rapid growth” of the subvariants throughout the state.

“This suggests a further wave of Covid-19 has started in Victoria,” Prof Sutton’s said on Friday in his weekly update.

Last week to November 2, Queensland recorded 105 people in hospital with Covid-19, including three in the ICU.

Meanwhile, 14 people had died from the virus over the course of the week.

Dr Griffin said he believes Queensland is already seeing a rise in cases in line with NSW and Victoria, however the lack of surveillance and reporting makes it difficult to tell what’s really happening.

“We’ve certainly started to see hospitalisations climb. We’re seeing patients in my practice more than we did a few weeks ago,” he said.

“It’s clear the numbers are increasing. It’s just that we have an under appreciation of that point because of the changes in testing particularly.”