Covid National: Children aged between 5 and 11 to begin getting Pfizer vaccine on January 10
Young Australians will be able to get their Covid-19 jabs within weeks, while senior UK politicians are in isolation after meeting Australia’s Deputy PM.
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Australian children aged five to 11 will start getting their Covid-19 jab before school begins next year, with the nation’s immunisation authority giving the final approval.
In a major step forward for the nation’s vaccination rollout, experts from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation will recommend that Pfizer be made available to the young age group on Friday.
The government will accept the advice and kids will start getting jabbed in a month from January 10, with parents able to book appointments before the end of December.
The vaccine for this age group is one-third of the dosage given to people aged 12 years and over.
ATAGI has recommended an eight-week interval between the two doses, which can be shortened to three weeks if there is an outbreak.
Healthcare providers will now be trained to give young kids the jab safely and Australia’s medicines regulator will start undertaking batch testing before children begin getting inoculated ahead of the 2022 school year.
“In one month from today, around 2.27 million Aussie kids aged five to 11 years will have the opportunity to roll up their sleeve and get vaccinated against Covid-19,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
“This will bring great relief to so many mums and dads who now have a choice on what’s best for their kids.
“They can have peace of mind knowing this has the tick from the best medical regulators in the world.
“Australia is a proud vaccination nation, especially when it comes to protecting our kids, with more than 95 per cent of all five-year-olds currently fully vaccinated against other diseases.
“Vaccinating our kids is the next step in our National Plan, which has continually provided us with a safe, step by step pathway to keeping Australians safe throughout the pandemic.”
Vaccines for kids will be made available through GPs, community pharmacies, Aboriginal Health Services, and state and territory clinics.
Individual clinics will decide if they will provide vaccines for young children while states and territories will be responsible for any school-based programs.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration and ATAGI are also assessing the Moderna vaccine for children aged six to 11, with advice expected over the coming weeks.
ATAGI reviewed clinical data from Canada, where Pfizer is already approved for children, when making its recommendations for the 5 to 11 age group.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said vaccinating children could also help reduce community transmission.
“(This can) help prevent children passing the virus on to younger siblings, grandparents and the wider community,” he said.
“We encourage all parents to vaccinate their children against Covid-19.”
Although most children with Covid have mild or no symptoms, some will experience severe disease which leaves them sick for months.
Missing school and being around friends has also affected their mental health.
About 5 million children aged 5-11 have received at least one dose of Pfizer in the US, including 1.4 million who have been double dosed.
JOYCE TESTS POSITIVE TO COVID; UK MINISTERS IN SELF ISO
Three UK cabinet ministers including the Deputy Prime Minister are in self isolation after meeting Barnaby Joyce while he was visiting Britain.
Mr Joyce tested positive to Covid-19 while in the United States after travelling from the UK.
Boris Johnson’s second in command, Domonic Raab, Communities Secretary Michael Gove and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps are all in self isolation.
“He is getting tested and he is self-isolating while we wait to hear whether the Australian deputy prime minister has Omicron or not,” a spokesman for Mr Raab said.
Mr Shapps tweeted he had pulled out of an event “as a precaution...after being in contact with Australian Deputy PM...”.
Mr Joyce is in Washington DC for work relating to the Morrison government’s new social media regulations.
He told Sky his travelling companions had so far tested negative and will isolate for 10 days before he is able to return home to Australia.
“If I could just work out which one of these channels has the cricket, I’m going to be so much better off,” he told Sky.
“I was just getting a bit tired and then I started to get some pain in my leg, so I got tested … I’d already been tested twice in the last couple of days in the UK.
“This was just as we arrived in the United States, but that’s life.”
Mr Joyce said he didn’t feel “that bad”.
“You really have to sort of quiz yourself as to whether you need to be tested at all because it doesn’t sort of scream at you,” he said.
When asked whether his diagnosis has changed his perspective on Australia needing to learn to “get on” with their lives and live with Covid, Mr Joyce said he was “still of the same view”.
“You can’t just shut the whole place down, the whole world has got to move on,” he said.
“We’ve got to work out how we keep people out of hospitals, that’s terribly important. We’ve got to make sure people get vaccinated.
“And we’ve got to work out the best way to try and manage and move on and get our lives back to as normal as we possibly can.
“I hope that in the future, rather than being isolated, it will be like the flu, where if you get it you go home and you manage it yourself … And people should be getting like they get a flu shot every year, get a Covid vaccine every year.
“I mean, that’s my dream,” he said.
Acting Nationals leader David Littleproud tweeted he had spoken to Mr Joyce on Thursday morning
“He’s isolating in the US until it’s safe for him to come home and we wish him all the best for his recovery,” Mr Littleproud said.
VICTORIA RECORDS ANOTHER 1206 CASES
Victoria has recorded 1206 new cases and two Covid deaths in the past 24 hours.
There are now 313 infected Victorians in hospital, with 61 in active intensive care and 25 on a ventilator.
A total of 66,784 tests were received and 3925 vaccines administered at state hubs.
More than 92 per cent of eligible Victorians are now fully vaccinated.
The state now has 11,145 active cases.
The Premier provided the insight on Thursday afternoon, confirming Victoria would have to live with the new variant in the community.
“We are not chasing an Omicron zero strategy, that is not a smart thing to do. That will not be achieved,” he said.
“We’ll be guided by the growing body of international evidence about the transmissibility and infectivity of this new variant but also the relatively positive signs that the disease is milder and certainly not more severe than the Delta variant.
“Our aim is to have as few rules as possible.”
The Premier also acknowledged the highly infectious nature of the new strain, which arrived in Victoria as the state’s daily case tally regularly topped 1000.
“This thing is in our country, it will be more widespread than any surveillance will show you. That’s just the nature of this virus – there’s always more cases than you know about,” he said.
“There’s no evidence that vaccinations are compromised by this variant; in fact, quite the contrary in terms of early evidence.”
The new insight comes after Victoria recorded its first case of the Omicron variant on Wednesday.
NEW VACCINE MILESTONE FOR QLD AND NT
Queensland and the Northern Territory have hit the 80 per cent double-dose vaccination target, leaving Western Australia as the only jurisdiction still to reach the milestone.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday congratulated Queensland and the NT for hitting the milestone set out in the national reopening plan, joining New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, South Australia, and Tasmania at 80 per cent fully vaccinated.
New South Wales and Victoria reached the 80 per cent double-jab mark in October, with both states and the ACT now over 90 per cent.
Nearly 90 per cent of Australians aged over 16 have had two doses of the vaccine.
Thursday’s update comes as Queensland prepares to throw its borders open to fully vaccinated interstate visitors for the first time in more than four months.
The Sunshine State originally planned to open the borders on December 17, when it had forecast the 80 per cent vax rate would be achieved, but this week Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk brought the reopening forward to Monday December 13.
“This is a great day for Queensland,” Ms Palaszczuk said of the 80 per cent achievement.
“Very few places in the world have got to this level of protection before a Covid wave arrives. The credit for this belongs to each and every Queenslander.
“But we can’t stop here. Let’s get to 90 per cent and beyond.”
NSW had 420 new Covid cases on Thursday and another person died from the disease.
Queensland recorded no new community cases on Wednesday but two Omicron infections previously detected in hotel quarantine in Cairns and Brisbane were reclassified.
The state is expecting a surge in Covid cases once the borders reopen, having successfully suppressed the virus through a strict border strategy.
Queensland’s border pass and hotel quarantine systems have kept case numbers low but the measures have also drawn criticism from business groups and individuals, who the rules have been too harsh and unfairly tilted towards celebrities and sportspeople.
Those who have received both doses of the vaccine and with evidence of a negative test from within 72 hours of entry will be welcomed into Queensland from interstate hot spots from 1am on Monday.
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS PLAY IT SAFE
Most Sydney Catholic Schools have gone to Christmas holidays early or declared a return to home learning amid fears of the spread of the Covid Omicron variant.
The Sydney Catholic Schools decided that despite the challenges with home learning, some school years would immediately return to that format for the remainder of the school year while at other schools, some classes would end immediately.
“There is a concern that Christmas with family and friends could be impacted by a potential exposure case and could force close contacts into two-weeks of isolation,” a spokeswoman said.
The new variant has been specifically cited as the reason that some classes ended for the year midafternoon on Wednesday with parents warned in the morning.
The advice to go to remote learning or end the school year went to about 150 primary and secondary schools across Sydney, with each offered a choice of what to do.
St Catherine Laboure Catholic Primary School Gymea in Sydney’s south was among the first to move to remote learning from December 13 to allow that 14-day buffer from Christmas while Year 7 at Brigidine College in Randwick ended classes and the school year today.
APPROVAL FOR ANTIBODY TREATMENT
A Covid-19 treatment that works to prevent patients from progressing to severe disease has been given the green light for use in Australia.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has granted provisional approval for the use of regdanvimab (Regkirona) for the treatment of Covid-19.
The antibody treatment, which was approved by the European Commission last month, is designed to prevent serious outcomes associated with Covid-19 in adults who do not require supplemental oxygen and who are at an increased risk of progression to severe disease.
Used on patients who have mild-to-moderate COVID-19, Regkirona is the fifth COVID-19 treatment to receive regulatory approval in Australia.
This monoclonal antibody treatment is now provisionally approved for the intravenous treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adult patients who are confirmed to be infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
As well as Europe, the treatment has also been granted regulatory approval in South Korea and emergency use authorisations in Indonesia and Brazil.
In a statement, the TGA said the move to grant provisional approval to Regkirona had been made on the basis of short-term efficacy and safety data.
“Australians can be confident that the TGA’s review process of regdanvimab (Regkirona) was rigorous,” the statement said.
“The decision to provisionally approve this treatment was also informed by expert advice from the Advisory Committee on Medicines, an independent committee with expertise in scientific and medical fields including consumer representation.
“The TGA continues to work very closely with international regulators to harmonise regulatory approaches, share information and where it speeds up evaluation, collaboratively review new treatments.”
CHRISTMAS TRAVEL PLANS UP IN THE AIR
Australians hoping to travel interstate for Christmas could have their plans thrown into disarray as state and territory leaders consider closing their borders.
Restrictions have been reintroduced in a number of states due to the emergence of the Omicron variant, which has now been detected in NSW, NT and the ACT.
There is also a suspected case in Queensland.
The strain, which was first identified in southern Africa, has raised the alarm over the vaccines efficacy against new variants.
Queensland and WA have thrown their hard border back up to South Australia as a precaution. Arrivals from Adelaide will be required to go into home or hotel quarantine for 14 days.
Meanwhile, South Australian Premier Steven Marshall announced people from NSW, Victoria and ACT must be tested on arrival and isolate until they receive a negative result. They will also need to get another test on day six of their stay.
Mr Marshall indicated a return to a hard border before Christmas was a possibility.
“It may become necessary. I hope it doesn't,” he told reporters on Sunday.
“We would only do that if we wanted to make sure that we still enjoy a Christmas here in SA. This is a balancing act.”
Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said she would have “more to say” about the planned opening of the border to NSW and Victoria on Monday.
So what does this mean for Christmas travel plans?
Australia’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly has said he is confident the nation’s high vaccination will limit the spread of Covid-19 over the Christmas holiday period.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Professor Kelly said he would not take a decision to recommend border closures lightly.
“Closing borders is a big decision. It’s a decision for government not taken lightly,” Professor Kelly said.
“We have all the other measures in place – test, trace and isolate – the public health and social measures, all of those matters we have and crucially, the vaccine, and we are one of the most vaccinated nations in the world right now.”
He also warned Australians to prepare for the Omicron variant to overtake Delta as the dominant strain across the world but added there was no evidence to suggest an increase in severity.
“This will spread around the world quite quickly. I suspect within the next few months Omicron will be the new virus in the world,“ Professor Kelly said.
“We have no evidence at the moment that the vaccine does not work, and as far as we know, the vaccine works against this new virus.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has put a pause on Australia’s reopening plan until December 15.
Existing arrangements will continue for Australians, permanent residents, immediate family (including parents) and other exempt visa holders including travellers through the New Zealand and Singapore travel bubbles.
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