Queensland claims it will run out of first dose Pfizer jabs unless stocks are boosted by commonwealth
One state government has claimed it will run out of first dose Pfizer inoculations in a week if the commonwealth does not intervene.
Queensland will run out of Pfizer vaccine in eight days unless the federal government increases supply for first doses.
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath has warned second dose inoculations will be given priority if the state does not receive a boost in supply from the commonwealth.
Ms D’Ath said she had written to Lieutenant General John Frewen, who coordinates the distribution of vaccines, requesting more than 152,000 additional doses – “an extra 113 trays” to cope with the increased demand for the Pfizer vaccine.
The increase in demand follows an outbreak of the more contagious Delta variant across Queensland with parts of the state plunged into a snap three-day lockdown.
But the Health Minister said her plea fell on deaf ears with Queensland only set to receive its allotted weekly amount of 64,000 Pfizer doses, which would result in fewer first dose Pfizer inoculations.
“The reason we gave is that we are at a critical levels and some of our sites, we have projected to run out of Pfizer by … July 5, next Monday at some of our sites,” Ms D’Ath said.
“One of those sites being Sunshine Coast University Hospital. We said additional vaccine supply is critical to avoiding cancellations of already committed appointments, and to ensure that we can continue to prioritise areas of high risk.
“We got a response (on Wednesday) morning from the Lieutenant General. We’ve been advised that we will not be provided additional vaccines.”
She said Victoria, when it was in lockdown, was granted an extra 100,000 vaccines.
“We weren’t offered less than what we asked for. We have been denied any extra,” Ms D’Ath said.
The number of people coming forward to get vaccinated hit a record on Tuesday when 16,963 inoculations were delivered.
However, a constant delivery of 64,000 doses a week would not meet the demand of new and second doses of Pfizer that are recommended to be delivered about four weeks after the initial inoculation.
“We are only getting about 64,500 each week in July, we got 45,000 vaccines delivered (on Tuesday) and on that delivery, and by our calculations, we have eight days stock of Pfizer left,” she said.
“We are getting to that point, that we will have to start prioritising only second doses if the commonwealth does not have any vaccine.”
When asked if all of Queensland deserved an apology for the oversight of a hospital worker near a Covid-19 ward not being inoculated and sparking the latest outbreak fear, Ms D’Ath said they were doing their utmost in trying times.
She said no one could prevent the spread of coronavirus, no matter how hard they tried, and experts had relayed to her the difficulty on containing an ebola outbreak in years past.
“The public understand this is a highly infectious disease that we are doing everything possible to contain,” Ms D’Ath said.
“Even some of our most expert specialists in infectious control in Queensland have said to me, when they’ve managed ebola in other countries, ‘no matter how much you try to control this, you can have the entire outfit from head-to-toe on, these viruses find a way (to escape).
“We are doing our absolutely best and our health workforce are doing their absolute best.”
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