COVID-19: Vaccine passports ‘to leave Aussies divided’
Vaccinated Aussies would be allowed to travel to medium-risk countries and not have to quarantine on return under a new plan.
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Vaccinated Aussies would be allowed to travel to medium-risk countries and not have to quarantine on return under a new plan from a peak business body.
Scott Morrison remains adamant it is “not safe” for Australia to gradually begin reopening its international border before mid-2022.
But the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry warns billions of dollars are being lost in international tourism, education and other export industries as the hard border remains in place.
“We have already got quarantine-free travel with New Zealand, so it’s looking at ways that we can extend that quarantine-free travel,” acting chief executive Jenny Lambert told Today.
“There are other countries which are only at medium risk which really have very low cases of COVID.
“If the traveller is vaccinated – whether they are coming in or whether it’s an Australian – we’re just saying allow that travel to occur and allow them to self-isolate as opposed to be in quarantine.”
This would occur under the second of four stages in a plan put to the federal government that aligns the reopening with phases of the vaccine rollout.
Once phase 2a was substantially complete, the third stage of the chamber’s plan would be unlocked.
This would give the green light for vaccinated Australians to have quarantine-free, two-way travel with low and medium risk countries.
They would also be able to travel to high-risk countries and use other methods of quarantine on return.
However, outbound travel for unvaccinated Australians would only be permitted with a government exemption and hotel quarantine on return.
The final stage of the plan, which aligns with most of the population being vaccinated under phase 2b of the rollout, would enable quarantine-free travel to essentially all countries for people who had the jab.
Non-vaccinated Aussies would then be able to travel to medium and high-risk countries and use other methods of quarantine on return.
However, they would be exempt from very high-risk nations.
“We need to explore the options in this proposal and have these discussions now,” Ms Lambert said.
“Conversation has come to a halt since the budget revealed international travel wouldn’t commence significantly until 2022 – the hallmark of our plan is to reignite that conversation.”
Ms Lambert said Australia’s reopening to the rest of the world should be a phased, risk-managed process.
“You need to have a staged plan in between that allows the community to build trust, allows travellers to build trust,” she said.
“But most importantly allow tourism businesses and travel businesses to plan what is going to be on offer over the coming year.”
WOOLIES SHOPPERS ORDERED TO ISOLATE
People who visited a Woolworths store earlier this month are being urged to get tested and isolate after traces of COVID-19 were detected in wastewater.
Chief health officer Brett Sutton said the traces were picked up around the Epping and Wollert area on Thursday night, prompting an investigation that uncovered there had been an error with a Woolworths coronavirus exposure site.
“We are encouraging anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 – fever, sore throat, cough, shortness of breath, and loss or change in sense of smell or taste – to get tested,” Professor Sutton said in a statement on Friday.
“While the detections may be due to someone who has had COVID-19 that is no longer infectious continuing to shed the virus, it is also possible that it is due to an active but undiagnosed infectious case.”
The wastewater detection concerned authorities because it is the same area where a positive case – who unknowingly caught the virus in South Australian hotel quarantine before flying to Melbourne – lives.
The man, who tested positive on May 4, is not currently in the Wollert area and is isolating in a health hotel outside the catchment, so coronavirus fragments are not thought to have come from him.
Contact tracers who reinvestigated his movements have now amended an exposure site location to include the Woolworths Epping North supermarket, at the corner Epping Road and Lyndarum Drive, from 5.40pm to 6.38pm on May 8.
The original exposure site was Woolworths Epping, at the corner of Cooper and High Streets, which is adjacent to other exposure sites.
The department now says that was an error.
The warning includes Woolworths staff and health officials have been in contact with the store to arrange staff identification and testing.
“What this means is, out of an abundance of caution, anyone who has been to the following exposure site has to get tested and isolate until they return a negative result,” Professor Sutton said.
There is a testing site at Northern Hospital in Epping, which is open seven days a week from 9am to 5pm.
A pop-up testing site is also being set up at Epping Stadium from Saturday.
“These types of traces of coronavirus in wastewater are getting detected regularly – with more people leaving hotel quarantine cleared of the virus but still shedding, and moving around our community,” Professor Sutton said.
“This detection is of note because there are public exposure sites in the area relating to the Wollert case, who has been isolating in a health hotel outside the catchment.”
40,000 SYDNEYSIDERS ON ALERT
Greater Sydney is on high alert after trace fragments of COVID-19 were detected at a sewage plant which serves more than 40,000 residents across 15 suburbs.
NSW issued an alert on Friday morning after the find at the Homebush sewage site.
“NSW Health is aware of recent COVID-19 cases, several returned overseas travellers, who live in this catchment,” the department said in a statement.
“People who are recently recovered from COVID-19 can continue to shed virus fragments into the sewerage system for several weeks even after they are no longer infectious.”
The catchment covers a number of major suburbs, including Homebush West, Strathfield, Rookwood, Concord West, Sydney Olympic Park, Wentworth Point, Newington, Lidcombe, Homebush, Silverwater, Petersham, Liberty Grove, Rhodes, North Strathfield and Concord.
But the health department is urging residents within the catchment to be vigilant and present for testing if symptoms appear.
VACCINATION HUBS FAL SHORT
Just three of the government’s promised 13 Pfizer vaccination hubs have been established two months after they were due to begin operating.
The three pop-up injection sites are all located in Sydney and are for younger aged care workers, who were on the frontline of Australia’s first pandemic wave.
The government’s Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation described aged care workers as “the most important group for prioritisation … because they are doing work of critical importance and social benefit.”
Incomplete federal government data shows that to date, only around 60,000 of the aged care sector’s 250,000 workers had been vaccinated.
Aged care workers have criticised the federal government’s handling of the vaccine rollout, which has included in-reach teams, general practitioners, respiratory clinics, Indigenous health services, state-run injection hubs, and federal hubs.
There has also been conflict around aged care staff under 50 receiving the Pfizer vaccine, while workers over 50 receive Astra Zeneca.
PASSPORTS COULD DIVIDE AUSSIES
Scott Morrison is being warned the introduction of domestic vaccine passports may create two classes of citizens, as the Prime Minister vows to continue working with the states on a plan to exempt fully vaccinated Australians from COVID restrictions.
Business groups joined the premiers of NSW and Queensland yesterday in blasting the idea, which Mr Morrison has this week been pushing.
Under the plan, states would waive snap lockdown and border closure restrictions on people who had received their coronavirus jabs.
But Restaurant and Catering chief executive Wes Lambert told The Australian a domestic vaccine passport system “would be very cumbersome” and create more red tape during the pandemic that would treat Australians differently based on their vaccination status.
“We need an open country, an open economy and the government has been requesting we holiday here this year — it’d be very difficult for us to support further red tape that would stop Australians from travelling within their own country and the potential to create two classes of Australian citizens,” he said.
NEW BLOOD CLOT CASES LINKED TO ASTRAZENECA
Meanwhile, Australia’s medicine’s watchdog has confirmed six new cases of blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine.
An 18-year-old woman from Queensland was among the new cases, as well as a 57-year-old Victorian woman, and a 53-year-old South Australian man, the Therapeutic Goods Administration said.
It said the teenage woman received the AstraZeneca jab before recommendations were updated on April 8 to say that specific vaccine should only be give to people aged over 50.
A clotting case in a 79-year-old Victorian man has now been added to the tally after a review.
Two other cases in individuals aged over 70 were also likely to be linked, but more clinical information was required before it could be confirmed.
Just 24 blood clot cases have been recorded out of the millions of jabs delivered.
“So far about 2.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered,” the TGA said in its latest vaccine report.
“Overall, 21 of these cases are considered confirmed and three are considered probable.
“Three of the four cases reported as probable in last weeks’ report have since been confirmed as TTS. The other case remains under investigation.”
CHEMISTS TO ROLL OUT COVID JABS
Pharmacies will begin delivering COVID-19 jabs within weeks as the government tries to ramp up the underperforming vaccine rollout.
Up to 56 chemists in rural and regional Queensland will be the first to deliver the AstraZeneca shots following a proposal from the Queensland Government.
National cabinet agreed in April that States and territories could chose to incorporate community pharmacies into their rollout plans in rural and remote areas where there were limited other health facilities to deliver the vaccines.
Up to fifty six locations have been identified by the Queensland Government where community pharmacies could be activated to vaccinate Australians.
The chemists will have to be trained to deliver the jabs,
“As additional vaccine supply is delivered over the coming months, additional community pharmacies will be brought on line to support an enhanced primary care roll out to ensure the broadest possible coverage for the community,” Health Minister Greg Hunt said. Community pharmacy will play an important role in the ramp up of the COVID-19 vaccine in the second half of the year, he said
VACCINE PASSPORTS FLOATED AS NSW DEMANDS OPEN BORDERS
The federal government is considering reopening Australia’s borders with a vaccine passport-style arrangement to allow a return to international travel without mandatory hotel quarantine.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has reportedly been discussing overseas travel options for fully vaccinated Australians with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in recent weeks, saying a digitally recorded vaccine passport is the “next most achievable step” in the recovery from COVID-19.
Mr Morrison said that while a digital vaccine passport is “the next step”, he noted “it’s not safe and won’t be for some time for Australia’s international borders to open fully.”
Mr Morrison continued, “But we are working on the next steps. And this is one of those important next steps. I look forward to working through, in a comprehensive way, those proposals with the state and territory governments, and, and I look forward to a constructive way forward.”
IATA currently operate the Travel Pass mobile app that allows people to record, store, and manage their COVID-19 test results and vaccines.
Qantas is reportedly trialling numerous document-style apps that would record traveller data and allow for border restrictions being further eased.
A number of countries around the world have adopted different forms of vaccine passports in recent months as vaccine numbers increase. In the UK, travellers can present their test results and vaccination information via an NHS app, while the European Union is currently preparing to roll out its Digital Green Certificate, which will allow fully-vaccinated citizens to travel freely within the EU.
Australia currently has a travel bubble agreement in place with New Zealand. It is expected that Singapore and Hong Kong could be added to the bubble within the coming months.
‘THERE SHOULD BE NO INTERNAL BORDERS’
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says Australians should be able to move freely around the country whether they have been vaccinated or not, putting her at odds with Scott Morrison’s plan for those who have had the vaccine to be excluded from COVID-19 restrictions.
According to a report in The Australian, Berejiklian, who has consistently shied away from border closures and strict lockdowns during the pandemic, said vaccinations should only be used to reopen the international border.
“There should be no internal borders. There should be free movement within Australia, vaccine or no vaccine,” Ms Berejiklian told The Australian.
“The vaccine is our way of dealing with international borders. There is no basis for states closing borders to other states.”
It sets up national cabinet stoush, after the Prime Minister hinted domestic vaccination passports could be developed to help ensconce free movement in Australia.
Mr Morrison wants the states to exempt fully vaccinated people from local COVID-19 restrictions during outbreaks, which have facilitated lockdowns and border closures.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk labelled the idea “another thought bubble” but ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said he would consider the passports “if a well-formed proposal comes before national cabinet”.
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan, who has imposed the toughest border restrictions, said he would need to see “strong evidence from a health perspective” to consider domestic vaccine passports, suggesting he would maintain a cautious approach to letting in interstate travellers.
With an election due in 12 months, the Morrison government has adopted a more conservative approach on lifting the international border — not until mid-2022 — and turned its focus to ramping up domestic travel.
GRAPH SHOWS AUSTRALIA IS LAGGING IN VACCINE ROLL OUT
Meanwhile, a shocking graph has exposed Australia’s failings when it comes to administering the COVID-19 vaccine.
Our World In Data revealed just how far behind the nation is with its rollout as countries like the US, UK, Canada and Spain continue to forge ahead.
Just 3.1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Australia so far, well behind the 274 million doses in the US, 183 million in India and 57 million in the UK.
New Zealand has also administered close to 400,0000 doses of the jab.
The Morrison government has long been criticised for its slow roll out, with fury often coming from state leaders who argue it is impossible to plan the rollout because the federal government isn’t transparent about when and how many doses they’re getting.
Earlier in the week the government was slammed for its slow rollout within the disability care sector.
Fewer than 1000 disability care residents have received a COVID-19 vaccine, new figures revealed.
The disability royal commission on Monday heard from senior counsel assisting Kate Eastman that the vaccine rollout was an “abject failure”.
But she said she understood the commission would need to hear the federal government’s explanation for the low inoculation rates.
“These are people who represent some of our most vulnerable members of the population,” Ms Eastman said.
“The Australian government rollout of vaccines to people with disability in residential care – and these are people who represent some of the most vulnerable people in our population – has been an abject failure.”
Health Minister Greg Hunt said 999 disability residents had been vaccinated as of noon on Monday.
At the time, a further 1526 support workers had also received a jab.
Mr Hunt said now that 60 per cent of residential aged care facilities had received a second visit, the government was moving into the next stage of the disability rollout.
“Those teams are being redeployed into disability (care facilities),” he said.
Meanwhile NSW is forging ahead with its rollout, opening up the program to people aged in their 40s after thousands registered their interest.
Those who fall into the age bracket will be given leftover doses of the Pfizer vaccine at Sydney’s vaccination hub in Homebush.
The news came on the same day the federal government said more than 4000 GPs would join the rollout.
Anyone aged between 50 and 70 can visit one of the thousands of GP clinics across Australia that are registered to be part of the program.
“There are over 4300 GPs delivering vaccines to people aged 50 years and over from May 17,” the Department of Health said in a statement.
“More than 1500 of those are in the regions, in regional, rural and remote Australia.”
More than 40 million doses have been administered in Germany, 29 million in France and close to 28 million in Italy.
Australia is now buying 25 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to keep up with demand and amid blood clot concerns with the AstraZeneca.
CLOSED BORDER UNTIL MID-2022 ‘NOT A CRAZY PROPOSITION’
Australia will not reach a target of having five out of six adults fully vaccinated until November next year unless the current rate of vaccination dramatically increases.
According to a report in The Australian, analysis of the pace of Australia’s current vaccine rollout by the Blueprint Institute think tank has found that the nation would have to speed up its rate of vaccination almost to the same level as the US and the UK to have five in six adults fully vaccinated by the end of December.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Monday that she wanted to see five out of six adults in the state vaccinated before the international border was opened.
But at the current pace of vaccination, the border reopening would go well beyond mid-2022, which is the time frame flagged by the Morrison government.
“The UK, US, EU and Canada are currently rolling out vaccinations around three times quicker than Australia,” Luke Heeney, a policy and economics researcher with the Blueprint Institute who compiled the projections told The Australian.
“For us to fully vaccinate five in six adults by the end of the year, we’d need to match that pace by the second week of August.
“If we wait until the final quarter to do so, the rollout will blow into 2022, finishing in February at the earliest. Given this, a closed border until mid-2022 is not a crazy proposition.”
HOW TRAVELLERS SPREAD VIRUS AT MEDI-HOTEL
It comes as health officials have suggested COVID-19 transmission at a medi-hotel in Adelaide may have happened when guests opened their doors to collect food.
A Victorian man is believed to have contracted the virus from a fellow traveller while quarantining at the Playford Hotel before going home to Melbourne.
The two men had been on the same flight, but the spread was not believed to have happened on the plane.
CCTV footage has been reviewed but no breaches have been identified.
South Australia’s deputy chief public health officer Emily Kirkpatrick said investigators were examining whether aerosol transmission played a part.
– with Maria Bervanakis, Katy Hall
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Originally published as COVID-19: Vaccine passports ‘to leave Aussies divided’
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