Coronavirus Qld: Event king’s offer to turbo-charge vaccine rollout

A Queensland events guru has offered to turn Suncorp Stadium and Brisbane’s Entertainment Centre into mass COVID-19 vaccination venues in a bid to turbo-charge the state’s stalled jab rollout.

Queensland events king Harvey Lister has offered to turn the likes of Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre and the Entertainment Centre into mass COVID-19 vaccination venues in a bid to turbo-charge the state’s stalled jab rollout.

Mr Lister, whose company ASM Global manages more than 350 major venues worldwide, says his plan – which also involves using ticketing companies like Ticketek and Ticketmaster to help run the large-scale vaccination centres – is a “no-brainer” and he will pitch it to federal and state governments this week.

His offer comes after Queensland was plunged into another COVID-19 crisis when an unvaccinated doctor working at Princess Alexandra Hospital came down with the virus, sparking an urgent lockdown of all hospitals, aged care facilities and prisons in Greater Brisbane.

Thousands of COVID-19 shots remain in fridges as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk insists the government will continue its “slow and steady” inoculation rollout despite Queensland lagging far behind NSW.

Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Sonya Bennett insisted the vaccine rollout was on schedule. Picture: Richard Walker

Damning figures have revealed only 28 per cent of the 66,560 vaccinations delivered to the Queensland Government have been administered – with only 18,611 of the 37,000 frontline workers in Phase 1A receiving the jab.

Comparatively, it is understood NSW is on target to hit 35,000 vaccinations with about 39 per cent of its delivered doses already administered.

Concern is mounting over Queensland’s slow rollout amid revelations the doctor at the centre of the latest COVID-19 outbreak has not yet received the jab despite her workplace – the Princess Alexandra Hospital – being a vaccination clinic.

At 10.30am, Ms Palaszczuk said the rollout would be “slow and steady” but later in the day backed the scheme.

Despite tens of thousands of doses sitting unused in Queensland, she said it was up to the Federal Government to get more supplies and cash to GPs and pharmacies to get more jabs out of storage and into Queensland arms.

The Sunday Mail has been told workers in the priority Phase 1a category are struggling to book vaccination appointments, with the PA Hospital forced to inoculate non-frontline workers from Phase 1b to prevent doses being wasted.

Frontline health workers at the hospital have complained about a “shambolic” booking system where staff struggle to book an appointment for their first jab.

A spokesman for Metro South Health acknowledged some non-frontline workers had been brought forward into the first round.

Mr Lister said the vaccine needed to be administered as quickly as possible “to help get Queensland and Australia moving again” and his company felt “an obligation to help”.

He said ASM Global venues had been used as hospitals and even morgues during the pandemic and those in Australia could easily be converted into mass jab centres.

Mr Lister said the Victoria-owned Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre has been earmarked by the Andrews Government for a high-volume vaccination centre “so there’s a precedent”.

“These venues are big pieces of social infrastructure built by communities for a purpose, but we’re seeing them used for other purposes in times of catastrophe like this pandemic,” he said.

“We just feel there’s an obligation on us at times like this to put our hand up and say ‘we’re here to help’.”

Mr Lister said stadiums and convention centres could be quickly converted into vaccination hubs operating 24/7, staffed by thousands of event workers who have been largely idle since the pandemic struck.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has defended the “gradual rollout” of vaccinations amid growing criticism of its pace. Picture: Richard Walker

He said Suncorp Stadium could operate as a drive-through vaccination centre.

Ms Palaszczuk has defended the “gradual rollout” of vaccinations amid growing criticism of its pace, declaring the state remained on target.

“Not everyone working in contact with hotel quarantine people have been done to date,” she said. “It’s a slow and steady process to get this right.

“As we get more and more supply, more and more people are going to get vaccinated.”

Within three weeks the state will begin vaccinating the rest of the health workforce in Phase 1B of the rollout program so long as the Commonwealth confirms the available vaccine supply.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the government needed to maintain a stockpile in case the Federal Government struggled to obtain supply from overseas.

Opposition Health spokeswoman Ros Bates has slammed the government for administering just one quarter of the state’s vaccine supply.

“The vaccine is in the hands of the Queensland Government. Why isn’t it in the arms of Queenslanders?”

Deputy chief health officer Sonya Bennet insisted the vaccine rollout was on schedule.“It’s always been anticipated to take some time,” she said. “There is light at the end of the tunnel … but there’s certainly a long way to go. We don’t have anyone fully vaccinated yet so until we are confident that both individuals have immunity and that the population, in general, has a level of coverage we will continue to respond to cases to suppress any transmission.”

Ms Palaszczuk called for the Federal Government to consider her regional quarantine plan following an influx of COVID-positive people into the state’s urban hotels from overseas.

Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union Secretary Beth Mohle said her members were happy with how the vaccine was being rolled out for frontline workers. However, Ms Mohle raised fears about how the state would deliver two doses of the vaccine to the remaining 4m Queenslanders.

“I have some concerns about how we’ll vaccinate 235,000 per week over 38 weeks to get to October if we’re to hit that deadline,” she said. “We’re nowhere near that.”

AMA Queensland President Chris Perry said the PA Hospital outbreak should be a wake-up call to the ongoing danger of COVID-19.

“This incident highlights the critical need for all frontline healthcare workers to be vaccinated without delay – particularly those in high-risk roles,” he said.

Flight Centre CEO Graham Turner urged the government to avoid a snap lockdown. “There’s been six snap lockdowns – two in NZ and four in Australia – and I don’t think they’ve caught a single case,” he said. He said tourism vouchers and half-price airfares had delivered optimism but said an international border opening – which he tips will occur around July 1 – will be a confidence-booster.

Originally published as Coronavirus Qld: Event king’s offer to turbo-charge vaccine rollout