Covid vaccination rates in parts of western NSW ‘shocking’: MP
Vulnerable communities in parts of western NSW have the least protection against Covid-19 with the worst vaccination rate in the state, new data shows.
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The Far West and Orana region in western NSW has the worst Covid-19 vaccination rate in the state, with only 13.4 per cent of people aged over 15 vaccinated as at August 1.
Newly released federal government data also reveals that when it came to people who had received one dose of a vaccine, the region was ranked third last in the state with a 31.4 per cent vaccination rate, behind only two Covid-hit parts of southwest Sydney.
The statistics were labelled “pretty shocking” by Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Barwon MP Roy Butler, whose electorate includes towns, such as Bourke, Brewarrina, Walgett, Gilgandra, Nyngan and Warren in the Far West and parts of the Orana region.
“If we don’t get the numbers up across the Far West and Orana, what we’re going to see is restrictions potentially lifted, probably due to community pressure, in Sydney, but without the protections for people in the west,” Mr Butler said.
“Sixteen per cent of Barwon are Aboriginal folk and we know that some of those communities have people with significant comorbidities, they’re also living in an environment where we do not have comprehensive medical services.
“If there was to be a series of cases in the west it would very quickly show how our health services are limited in what they can do and that’s something I don’t want to see happen and I don’t want to see vulnerable people exposed and worse still, I don’t want to see anyone dying as a result of not having access to a vaccine.”
LATE IN THE RACE?
The federal government’s handling of the vaccine rollout was to blame, according to Mr Butler who has also been critical of the state government’s decision to send Pfizer vaccines from regional NSW to HSC students in Covid-devastated parts of Sydney.
“They need to get doses, I’m not denying they need to get doses, but my view is those doses should come out of the new supplies that are coming in,” he said.
“We should never have had to have this discussion. We should never have had to consider redistributing doses from regional NSW to the metro because we should never have been so late in the race in terms of trying procure vaccines and a good combination of vaccines.
“Given we’ve got around one million Pfizer doses a week coming in to Australia over the next four weeks until the end of August, I don’t understand the redistribution when we could have just said the new doses that come off the plane are going to southwest Sydney and people who have a booking out west can keep their booking.”
When the latest Covid outbreak worsened, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian had pleaded with other states to divert their jabs to NSW, however her requests were rejected and the federal government stepped in to give NSW an additional 50,000 Pfizer doses from what’s been dubbed a national stockpile.
ASTRAZENECA FOR YOUNGER PEOPLE
Western NSW Local Health District chief executive officer Scott McLachlan said he understood the vaccination rollout was “concerning issue” in his region and work was underway to lift vaccination rates.
“I’d like to see our vaccination rates double what they are at the moment, we know that it’ll take some time to get to that stage,” Mr McLachlan said.
‘Through September and October, there’ll be a much bigger supply of both Pfizer and AstraZeneca and some of the other vaccines coming into the country.”
By the end of the week, Mr McLachlan said more young people would be able to book in for AstraZeneca jab at NSW Health hubs or clinics in his district.
“The state clinics will be moving to vaccinate people between the age of 18 and 40 with AstraZeneca by the end of this week.
“Wherever you are in western NSW there’s a supply of AstraZeneca available … there’s endless supply of AstraZeneca vaccine available.
“I really would encourage people to take that up as an option.”
People in regional NSW who had already received their first dose of Pfizer would get a second in line with health advice and only people who were yet to receive a dose of Pfizer would have their appointments postponed because of the move to divert doses to Sydney, Mr McLachlan confirmed.
“We have stepped in very quickly to make sure that we’ve got a guaranteed supply of around 1000 doses of Pfizer over the next month,” he said.
“We know that general practice, Aboriginal medical service and respiratory clinic private providers have access to a good supply of Pfizer so we really encourage people to look at those options.”
PHARMACIES ORDERING JABS
The Nationals Dubbo MP Dugald Saunders represents part of the Orana region and he said about 9000 Pfizer doses a week were being administered in the region through the GPs, Aboriginal medical service and respiratory clinics run by private providers who the federal government’s Western NSW Primary Health Network allocates vaccines to.
“It’s not just about the Pfizer, I really want to encourage people to step forward and consider AstraZeneca,” Mr Saunders said.
“This is the Oxford University vaccination, when the scientist who developed this vaccine was at Wimbledon, she got a standing ovation. This is the vaccination that helped the UK essentially out of its lockdown.”
Pharmacies, who first expressed an interest in administering vaccines for the federal government last year, would soon be delivering AstraZeneca jabs in Dubbo, Mr Saunders said.
“I’ve spoken to several pharmacies across the region, particularly focusing on Dubbo as the larger centre, and most of them are very close to being able to start giving those vaccinations.
“In the next two or three weeks that will be happening and that will be at scale, where our numbers go from low to reasonably high I think.
“This week for many of them, they’ve now been on-boarded and have actually been able to order their first doses which will hopefully be delivered over the next few weeks.”
DECISION DEFENDED
Weighing in on criticism of the government’s decision to send Pfizer jabs from the regions to Sydney, Mr Saunders says the decision is a sensible one and people in Sydney have historically helped regional NSW people with crisis responses to disasters like bushfires and droughts.
“It’s a little bit depressing in some way, to see some people using political gamesmanship to try and score points in a situation where young peoples lives are being affected,” he said.
“It’s like attacking a bushfire, you attack the bushfire at its source and the source of this bushfire is southwestern Sydney … if we don’t put any effort into extinguishing it there, there’s no point putting out spot fires everywhere else if we’re not attacking the main source as well.
“The only place we will get any infection from is there from somebody who has been in contact with somebody from there and then brings it back to our region.”
MESSAGING PROBLEM
Both Mr Saunders and Mr Butler agreed that numerous changes to health advice about who should get the AstraZeneca jab Australia invested heavily in was a key reason behind the low vaccination rates in the Far West and Orana regions.
“It’s undermined confidence in a vaccine that from all credible reports, is actually a safe vaccine for anyone over 18,” Mr Butler said.
“Once you get these snippets of information out there that essentially undermine confidence it’s very hard to stop it. It’s a bit like a snowball running down a hill, it feeds the conspiracy theorists.
“The other thing that feeds the conspiracy theorists is when you’re not transparent with the data that underpins your decisions.”
CALL FOR MORE TRANSPARENCY, TESTING
Taking aim at the Premier, Mr Butler suggested the state government could boost confidence in the vaccine rollout and rates by releasing the health advice she refers to everyday.
“We have a briefing every morning at 11am where decisions have already been made, evidence has been assessed, but the people whose lives are impacted by those decisions aren’t brought into the fold and given the chance to actually look at the data that’s being used to make those decisions,” Mr Butler said.
“We keep hearing that we’re following the health advice but we never see the health advice. We’re never told what the health advice says.”
To keep the regions protected from Covid, the government should also increase surveillance testing of essential workers travelling to regional NSW, Mr Butler said.
“I only think it’s a matter of time before we do see more cases in the bush and we’ve got to respond quickly when we do because we’ve still got people able to travel from Sydney for essential work purposes.
“Their only requirement is to have a test in the preceding seven days before they leave Sydney, I’ve asked the Minister to make that three days.”
Mr Saunders said he was booked in to get an AstraZeneca vaccine next week, while Mr Butler confirmed he was eligible for the Pfizer vaccine and would receive his first dose in September.
Visit the Australian Government’s Department of Health website to check your vaccine eligibility and find out where you can get vaccinated.
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