PM reveals new Aussie ‘superspreaders’ driving Delta outbreaks

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has revealed the age group Australia needs to focus on if it has any hope of getting covid under control.

Younger Australians aged under 40 are Covid-19 “superspreaders” and they are taking the virus home to their children and elderly parents according to new research outlining how Australian can emerge from repeated lockdowns.

Releasing the Doherty Institute report that has underpinned national cabinet’s new 70 per cent vaccination target for the next phase of the Covid-19 response, the Prime Minister said today that governments were “humbly” learning about the virus.

But one of consequence of the research is likely to include rolling out vaccines to younger Australians faster given it is this age group that is more mobile, more likely to work in essential industries and is often spreading covid in the community.

The new research warns that while “younger adults are peak transmitters of COVID-19, older adults experience the most severe health impacts”.

“As supply allows, extending eligibility to all adults (16+) offers the greatest potential to slow down transmission,’’ the research states.

Doherty Institute Professor Jodie McVernon said the key message was that immunising younger people should be a priority.

“This is a strategy that basically follows where we are right now but brings forward immunisation of the 30-39 group to the beginning of September and 16-29 to early in October,’’ she said.

Despite praising NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian for resisting a lockdown last month, the Prime Minister said he now accepted that short, sharp lockdowns were necessary with the “gamechanger” Delta variant.

“People were acting on the advice that they had and the information they had,’’ he said.

“I mean, I’m glad everyone else has got perfect hindsight. No one in the world has perfect hindsight over these issues.

“The Delta strain is a strain that we’ve sought to understand and learn, and react to and respond to. But I’ll tell you what, we all humbly learn from these things. We all humbly learn from these things. And then we make the adjustments and we get on with it.”

Mr Morrison said once the majority of Australians were vaccinated, the hospitalisation rates for covid would be similar to the flu.

“To reinforce a point you have made to us on several occasions, when you get it down to 80 per cent, the sort of death, hospitalisation and infection rates is what you expect to see with something like a flu,’’ the Prime Minister said.

During the presentation, the Doherty Institute said risk was clear.

“We know this from looking around the world for 18 months. Yes, children can get covid and we are concerned about them becoming infectious but they’re not as good as their parents are,’’ she said.

“In this case it’s really the 20-39 years that are peak spreaders. They will bring covid to their children and to their parents.”

Younger people are currently spreading the virus most in Australia. Picture: Supplied

But Mr Morrison has slammed Labor’s proposal to offer every Australian who is fully vaccinated a $300 a bonus

The Morrison government has today released the Doherty Institute report that underpins the recent decisions of the national cabinet to set targets for vaccination rates in Australia.

The research outlines the 70 per cent vaccination target that must be met before state governments can avoid short, sharp lockdowns in the event of outbreaks that have occurred in recent weeks in NSW, Victoria, SA and Queensland.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese incentive plan would see every Australian citizen who is fully vaccinated by December 1 secure a $300 cash payment.

“They will spend it, creating and supporting jobs in their local communities, supporting economic activity, given that September has seen, of course, because of these lockdowns in the September quarter, it’s likely to be negative. And businesses and workers are really struggling,’’ he said.

“This pandemic has seen all sorts of one-offs. But the truth is, the government had two jobs this year, the rollout of the vaccine and national quarantine.”

RELATED: $300 cash for jabs ‘an insult’ to Aussies

Scott Morrison has released the Doherty Institute modelling behind Australia’s four-step plan out of the pandemic.

Earlier, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham slammed Labor’s cash splash plan to hand every Australian who is fully vaccinated a $300 bonus as “an insult”.

Despite Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s call for new cash handouts this morning to boost vaccination rates, the Morrison government has flatly rejected the idea revealing for the first time it had already been considered and ruled out.

“No, we looked at it, and the evidence says it’s unnecessary and unlikely to work,” Senator Birmingham told ABC TV.

“If you look at the different age cohorts, the over 70s, we’re now exceeding 79 per cent of over 70s had their first dose. So, if you look right through all Australians over the age of 16, 41 per cent of all Australians over the age of 16 have turned out for their first dose.

“It’s clearly unnecessary in the sense that Australians are responding. They do want to get their vaccines. It’s a bit insulting to the many millions of Australians who are already doing the right thing, who are planning on doing the right thing, and know full well the reason they could get vaccinated is to protect their health and the health of their fellow Australians.”

The incentive plan follows national cabinet flagging that unspecified “incentives” will be offered to the vaccinated in Phase B of the rollout when 80 per cent of Australians are vaccinated.

Those incentives could include not subjecting fully vaccinated Australians to the same stay-at-home orders as the unvaccinated or greater freedom to travel interstate.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has flagged that Sydneysiders could be given some of their “freedoms” back by the end of August, but only if more adults are vaccinated against Covid-19.

RELATED: New restrictions for unvaccinated Aussies

The PM revealed on Friday that 70 per cent of Australia’s adult population need to be fully vaccinated before we can move on to the next phase. Picture: Saeed Khan/AFP

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian outlined the vaccination target for August 29 in a bid to encourage more people to get the jab.

“Please know that the more of us that get vaccinated, the greater chance we have to live freely beyond August 29,” Ms Berejiklian told reporters on Tuesday.

“We know that people value their freedom, their desire to go back to work, their desire to engage in community life.

“Those are the type of incentives that we‘ll be looking at over the next little while to provide our citizens with the opportunities to know that if they’re vaccinated and their loved ones are vaccinated, there will be opportunities for greater freedom moving forward.”