Federal government blames FIFO workers for massive drop in NT vaccination rate
NT health officials have been bamboozled by a near 10 per cent drop in the number of Territorians counted as having had their first dose of the Covid-19 jab, as chaos around Australia’s rollout continues.
Northern Territory
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A SNEAKY change has seen the Territory’s vaccination rate tumble by almost 10 per cent, in a move which has bamboozled health officials.
The federal health department has changed the way Covid-19 doses are counted to the postcode of the recipient’s address in Medicare, claiming FIFO workers are behind the Territory’s vax rate collapse.
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Prior to this week, vaccine numbers reflected the location of where the dose was administered.
The change has seen the percentage of Territorians who’ve received at least one dose tumble from 49.25 per cent to 41.6 per cent.
The new methodology has caught NT Health off guard, with concerns many doses administered in the Territory have been counted interstate due to NT residents not updating their address with Medicare.
Health Minister Natasha Fyles said prior to the change, the NT was tantalisingly close to reaching 50 per cent with at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
“Under the same methodology used up until a few days ago, our data shows 49.25 per cent of Territorians have received their first dose and 30 per cent have received their second dose,” Ms Fyles said.
“We have now delivered more than 150,000 vaccines in the Northern Territory, including 93,871 first doses and 57,188 second doses.”
Ms Fyles said she hasn’t been given an explanation for why the decision to change metrics was made, halfway through the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
“It is unclear why the Commonwealth Government has changed their methodology,” she said.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt’s office referred the NT News to the federal health department’s Operation Covid Shield, who blamed FIFO workers for the drop.
“Data used to be based on the location of the provider and is now based on the residence of the individual vaccinated as identified on their Medicare card,” a spokeswoman for Operation Covid Shield said.
“In the case of the Northern Territory, there is a high proportion of transient workers; that is, people who live outside of the Territory who had their vaccination administered within the Territory.”
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