‘Your six months is up’: Daniel Andrews hints boosters will be needed to keep fully vaccinated freedoms

Victorians may soon be required to get a third booster shot or lose their fully vaccinated freedoms, with a message warning them before their “six months is up”.

Victorians may soon be required to get a third Covid-19 booster shot or lose their fully vaccinated freedoms.

Daniel Andrews suggested on Sunday that going forward, life for the vaccinated would “be about the maintenance of your vaccination status”.

The Victorian Premier made the comments ahead of a meeting of the medical regulator on Monday that could see third doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine offered to the general public as early as the end of next week.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and the federal government’s vaccine advisory body, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), are considering booster shots for everyone six months after their second dose.

“I hope, and we’ll play our part in this, like a month before your six months is up, then you will get a message and your vaccination certificate, the thing that gets you the green tick, you’ll be prompted to go and book a time to go and have your booster shot,” Mr Andrews said.

“There may be state clinics in that or it might be all done through GPs and pharmacies, that hasn’t been worked through yet. We’re happy to play our part, though. So it’ll be about the maintenance of your vaccination status.”

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

If boosters get the thumbs up, it would make Australia only the second country after Israel to roll out booster shots to its whole population.

Israel announced earlier this month that booster shots would now be required to be considered fully vaccinated, saying it would soon cancel the vaccination passports – known as the Green Pass – of more than a million people who were eligible for, but had not yet received, their third dose.

“Now is the time to be strict about the Green Pass, be cautious and not become complacent,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also said the definition of “fully vaccinated” may change as boosters roll out.

Mr Andrews’ comments appear to have caught the federal government off guard.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt had earlier downplayed questions over the booster program’s implications for vaccine passports that are now required in states including NSW and Victoria to access basic freedoms such as indoor dining, haircuts and gyms.

In a statement on Sunday night, Mr Hunt said the federal government had “already flagged that the national booster program will commence once the TGA and ATAGI have considered and approved the use of boosters in Australia”.

“We have both the supply ordered and distribution capabilities to support any booster program recommended and currently, there is enough vaccine distributed for every Australian who chooses to do so to have their two doses to be considered fully vaccinated,” he said.

“It is a matter for states as to how they wish to communicate that in addition to the national messaging.”

It’s understood the NSW government is awaiting further guidance on booster shots from ATAGI and the federal government and will continue to review its position.

People out in St Kilda on Melbourne’s first Friday night out of lockdown. Picture: Tony Gough

On Saturday, Mr Hunt had stressed that “if you’re double vaccinated, you’re fully vaccinated” and that the booster was “additional protection”.

But Mr Hunt last week refused to rule out a scenario where Australians would be required to be “up-to-date” with their boosters for the purposes of vaccine passports.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the Health Minister was asked whether “you ever imagine a situation where the passports that we have now, [and] are going to have for travel, will include needing to be up-to-date with your booster shot”.

“Sure. Look, [we] will follow medical advice on that and I won’t speculate on passports,” Mr Hunt said.

“I think that’s very much a medical question with the science to flow over the coming months. So, it’s a fair question.”

Mr Hunt similarly would not rule out boosters being required to be considered fully vaccinated for some industries such as healthcare.

“Look, I won’t speculate, as ever, on the medical advice – we’ll continue to follow it,” he said. “Right now, we’re at the point of opening up the booster program.”

An elderly patient receives a booster shot in Paris. Picture: Thomas Coex/AFP

At the same press conference, chief medical officer Paul Kelly had stressed that double-vaxxed “means you’re fully vaccinated” and that “the booster gives you a boost in your protection”.

“Paul has just said two doses is fully vaccinated,” Mr Hunt said. “A booster is a booster.”

On Saturday, deputy chief medical officer Michael Kidd again emphasised that “if you have had two doses of Covid-19 vaccine you are fully vaccinated, and you are already very well protected against becoming severely unwell if you are infected with Covid-19”.

“This is little evidence at this time that protection against severe disease wanes over time in those who are double vaccinated,” Professor Kidd said.

“But what we do know is that antibody levels fall over time and there is a risk of breakthrough infections where vaccinated people may become infected and at risk of transmitting Covid-19 to others. So, a booster dose, if you like, turbocharges your immune response and provides additional layers of protection to you and to your loved ones, and to the wider community.”

A sign near the entrance to Crown in Southbank. Picture: David Crosling/NCA NewsWire

Prof Kidd said if it had now been six months since you received your second dose, “there is no reason to be anxious”.

“But I do recommend that if boosters do become available, that you present for your booster dose when it is your turn,” he said.

“It is likely if booster doses are approved that these will roll out initially to those who were vaccinated first in Australia. Which includes the residents and staff of residential aged care facilities, and disability care facilities, healthcare workers, and those working in border and quarantine facilities.”

Asked on Sunday what science or data over the coming months would determine whether boosters would be required to be considered “fully vaccinated”, Mr Hunt’s office directed enquiries to his department.

‘It’ll be about the maintenance of your vaccination status.’ Picture: Damian Shaw/NCA NewsWire

“Based on the medical advice and as Australia’s chief medical officer has said, you are fully vaccinated at two doses,” a Health Department spokeswoman said.

“ATAGI is currently actively looking at the need for booster doses. ATAGI will provide further advice in the coming weeks based on the clinical evidence informing the use of additional vaccine doses, including whether a booster dose is required to maintain protection against Covid-19 and, if so, how often it should be administered.”

Lieutenant General John Frewen, head of Australia’s vaccine taskforce, said on Monday that a decision on booster shots was “imminent”.

“We think what’s going to happen is that a booster shot will be made available from six months from your second dose,” he said.

“So we’ll work the priority groups in the very first instance – aged and disability care, frontline workers, those sorts of areas. But we think what will happen is that as people become eligible from six months they’ll just be able to go and grab a booster shot.”

Mr Andrews has warned that unvaccinated Victorians will be locked out of the “vaccinated economy” at least until 2023.

“Two doses, or you’re not getting in,” Mr Andrews said on Sunday.

“Some masks in some settings, principally indoors, where there is a greater risk, and the economy being open to you only if you have had two shots, only if you are fully vaccinated. They are two rules that will be enduring. They are the two rules that will be with us right throughout 2022. That is as close to normal as any part of our nation and any part of the world can be.”