Free flu jabs as fears grow over ‘significantly bad’ flu season

Queenslanders will be given free flu injections as fears grow over a “significantly bad” flu season this year.

Queenslanders will be given free flu injections from Tuesday to June 30, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced.

The Premier said there have been reports that the flu season in Queensland this year is “significantly bad”.

Last week there were 1848 cases of Influenza A and this week there were 4282, including 151 in hospital and 10 in ICU.

“I understand that communities and people have vaccine fatigue ... but what we’re seeing now is these symptoms are very similar to Covid,” she said.

“It is serious and we don’t want to see people ending up in our hospitals when you can take a preventative step and get the vaccine.”

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said case numbers were doubling every week, with the state already having the same number of hospital admissions that were seen by July during 2017’s flu outbreak.

“This is escalating very quickly, we expect in the next two to three weeks that our cases will end up at least doubling ... and that won’t be the peak,” she said.

“Our 2017 season saw more than 750 people in intensive care and our 2019 season saw about 300 people

“The fact that more than 4000 cases have already been detected when flu seasons don’t usually begin until late July, is very concerning.

“Our best defence is to get as many people vaccinated as possible.”

Ms D’Ath said there have been co-infections of the flu and Covid with some being admitted into the ICU.

COVID-19 measures had reduced flu cases to almost nil since 2020 until this year.

The free vaccines will be available for all Queenslanders aged six months and older.

Ms Palaszczuk said people were encouraged to go to GPs and pharmacies to get their jab.

“If we then need to supplement by looking at going into schools, we will look at that like we did with Covid vaccines,” she said.

The state has budgeted $40m for the flu vaccine rollout, according to the Premier.

The Premier said Influenza A was “nothing to laugh about”.

“I’m taking a very decisive, proactive measure now to help stop and prevent the escalation down the track. Our hospitals will not be able to cope if we keep seeing this,” she said.

Ms D’Ath said in addition to the normal winter bed strategy in hospitals, the state still has contracts in place with private hospitals to access around 625 beds for flu admissions. Queensland also has “acute flu clinics” that can be used for additional flu clinics to help keep people out of emergency departments, the health minister said.

Ms D’Ath said the rollout of free jabs would help support everyday Queenslanders and businesses.

“I don’t want anyone making the decision this year to not get the flu shot because they can’t afford it,” she said.

Ms Palaszczuk said she had taken the unprecedented decision to protect Queenslanders because “Influenza A is predominantly a virus impacting young and old age groups more than others, vaccine rates and immunity levels are low, and case numbers are climbing faster and earlier than expected”.

Acting Chief Health Officer Dr Peter Aitken said time is of the essence.

“Influenza A is more severe than Influenza B,” he said.

“It leads to greater numbers needing to go to hospital.

“Vaccination rates for children 6 months to less than 5 years of age is just 6 per cent.

“I urge parents of all age groups to please take up this offer of a free vaccine.”

Dr Matt Young, who works as a GP in Inala, said he had recently noticed a spike in flu cases at his medical centre.

“We’ve certainly seen more people these past couple of weeks with the flu than we have previously,” he said.

“I’ve definitely noticed there’s more than last year, but the last couple of years have been unbelievably good for the flu, with all the hand washing and mask wearing.”

And since the government’s free flu jab announcement Monday afternoon, the front desk at the Inala centre had seen a “noticeable increase” in bookings for the vaccine.

“We’ve happily seen lots of enthusiasm for the flu jab... It’s something so simple and that key point is you just don’t want to get the flu and Covid, that would just be catastrophic,” he said.

Pharmacist at Good Price Pharmacy Ashmore, Amanda Seeto, said increases in sale figures had shown a possible spike in flu cases.

“We’ve seen cold and flu medicine sales and requests increase significantly over the past couple of weeks. But whether that’s for the flu, a cold or Covid, we can’t be sure,” she said.

In response to the announcement, GPs said it was ironic that Deputy Premier Steven Miles was announcing on social media that Queenslanders should race to their doctors for a free flu jab

“It’s a pity that the Deputy Premier didn’t show the same faith in GPs delivering a great vaccine service when he blamed community doctors for the ramping crisis,” Dr Bruce Willett, Queensland Chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said.

Originally published as Free flu jabs as fears grow over ‘significantly bad’ flu season