Booster demand rises as nightclub super-spreader highest since Ruby Princess

Doctors and pharmacists are clamouring to secure boosters to meet demand ahead of Christmas, as the state tries to contain its biggest COVID-19 transmission event since the Ruby Princess cruise ship.

More than 200 cases have been identified in people who attended a superspreading event at a Newcastle nightclub. All are likely to be sequenced as the new Omicron variant.

Hundreds of people have been deemed close contacts after attending Argyle House nightclub in Newcastle. Credit: Darren Pateman

Demand for vaccine boosters has surged in recent days as NSW case numbers have climbed to more than 800, the highest level since lockdown ended in October. About 740,000 people in NSW are now eligible for a booster after the wait time for third doses was reduced from six months to five.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said with the evidence showing vaccination efficacy rates “drop off dramatically after about three or four months” serious consideration should be given to changing the definition of fully vaccinated to include third doses.

Mr Hazzard said he believed vaccine advisory group ATAGI should consider bringing booster doses forward to three or four months, in line with Britain where qualifying for a booster has been cut from six months to three.

NSW Health is investigating whether a person who allegedly breached isolation rules to attend the Argyle House triggered the nightclub cluster. Hunter New England Health public health physician Dr David Durrheim said officials are reviewing CCTV footage, but “there was almost no mask wearing and clearly people were huddled together very, very close”.

NSW reported 804 new local COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.

Mr Hazzard said the numbers would not cause the government to “backflip” on removing restrictions for unvaccinated people and dropping density limits and QR code check-ins at some venues from Wednesday. He instead joined Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant in urging people to receive a booster shot.

But after the ATAGI unexpectedly changed eligibility from six months after a person’s second shot to five earlier this month, there has been a rush for the shots causing pharmacy booking sites to crash and doctors racing to keep up with demand.

Mount Druitt general practitioner Kean-Seng Lim said his practice is likely to run out of booster shots within 10 days. In Darlinghurst, GP Brad McKay said his booster appointments were “completely booked out”, with practice staff attempting to secure extra shots from nearby clinics.

“We can only order vaccines every two weeks ... it is very hard to ramp up stock at a moment’s notice,” Dr Lim said. “And because we had no early notification that boosters would be brought forward we had no capacity to plan and get stock in.”

Port Macquarie pharmacist Judy Plunkett said her chemist was “absolutely smashed” when the boosters were fast-tracked to five months.

“We have run out of Pfizer and it’s a two-week turn around to order more stock ... it’s very difficult when we are managing everyone enthusiastically wanting a booster,” said Ms Plunkett, noting her Moderna stock is now close to expiry.

Online booking service MedAdvisor, which is used by the majority of pharmacies offering boosters, said it had experienced a fourfold increase in national booster bookings this week, with more than 8100 appointments between Monday and this Sunday so far.

“We’re seeing booking loads significantly increase, which we’re attributing to announcements around vaccines opening up to children as well as the reduced timeframe for access to boosters,” MedAdvisor CEO Robert Read said.

More than 220 of Tuesday’s cases were from the Hunter, where Omicron clusters at Newcastle pubs and nightclubs are driving infections.

All passengers on the first Newcastle to Brisbane flight since the NSW and Queensland border re-opened have been deemed close contacts of a COVID-19 case, meaning they will spend Christmas in isolation.

The number of cases in attendees at the Argyle last Wednesday has hit 200, with more expected. During the first COVID-19 wave in 2020, the Ruby Princess cruise ship outbreak infected more than 900 passengers and crew and spread to another 62 people when the travellers returned to Australia.

Of the Argyle cases, ongoing sequencing has revealed one of the cases has Omicron and more are likely to be confirmed.

“We are of the belief that Omicron transmission is accounting for our increased case numbers at present,” Dr Chant said on Tuesday, raising concern about clusters in pubs and nightclubs of the “more transmissible” variant.

Dr Chant said it was still important to contact trace with the aim of minimising the spread of the variant.

“We’re particularly concerned about trying to make sure that people who might be working in aged care or disability, or in our hospitals – in those very sensitive settings – that they don’t go to work unknowingly infectious,” she said.

Both Dr Chant and Mr Hazzard urged people to book in their boosters as soon as they are eligible.

However, most of the people who have caught the virus at these large events in recent days in NSW are not yet eligible for their booster.

Of Tuesday’s 804 cases, 280 were in people aged 20 to 29 and the age group accounted for just over a quarter of infections over the past week. But fewer than one in 10 people in their 20s had received their second dose five months ago, with most needing to wait until March for a booster.

Mr Hazzard said he would support the boosters being administered as early as three months, as has occurred in the UK.

University of Queensland vaccine researcher Associate Professor Paul Griffin said it was important to remember Australia was approaching the new wave of COVID-19 infection with one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, and the data was too preliminary to say how reduced the protection of two doses was against Omicron exposure.

“We’ve been saying all along that we’re going to use boosters to respond to a variety of situations,” he added, noting geographic or demographic targeting of boosters could make sense when an outbreak was occurring in a particular group.

Tasmania will reopen its border to NSW arrivals from Wednesday.

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