‘Magic number’ of vaccines clearer under plan out of Covid-19: top doctor

One of Australia’s top doctors has revealed when it would be ‘very realistic’ to have the whole country fully immunised against Covid-19.

The head of Australia’s peak medical body says it is “very realistic” to get everyone who wants both vaccine doses fully immunised by the end of the year.

President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) Dr Omar Khorshid said the “magic number” of vaccinations required to get back to normal would become clearer under the country’s four-phase plan to steer its way back to normal.

AMA president Dr Omar Khorshid said it was “very realistic” to fully immunise Australians who want both vaccine doses by the end of the year. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed the strategy at Friday’s national cabinet meeting amid new cases surging across the country.

The first stage of the plan involves reaching a certain vaccination threshold after offering all Australians the chance to get vaccinated.

Dr Khorshid told Weekend Today that Federal and State Governments uniting under the plan was encouraging because it “shows us a path” out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“They need to base it on science, like they have through the whole pandemic,” he said.

Dr Khorshid said it was very realistic to have everyone who wanted both vaccine doses fully immunised by the end of 2021 as AstraZeneca was being manufactured in Australia and Pfizer doses were being “ramped up”.

He said modelling would be done to determine what the “magic number” of vaccinations required for the return to normality would be, instead of having multiple opinions.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has outlined a four-stage plan to steer the country out of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been agreed to by state and territory leaders. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

While an exact date for that number isn’t clear yet, he said it could depend on how the Delta variant of Covid-19 is handled.

Australians would be encouraged to get their vaccines at risk of being “left behind” or even contracting coronavirus.

“It may just be a case of sticking in the new transmissibility number for this variant … the model could come up with the answer fairly fast,” Dr Khorshid said.