Coronavirus: Go-slow on vaccination puts Queensland at risk
Thousands of Queensland health workers remained unvaccinated despite a stockpile when a doctor and nurse were infected.
Thousands of frontline healthcare workers remained unvaccinated in Queensland despite the state having a significant stockpile of vaccines when a doctor and a nurse were exposed to COVID-19, triggering an outbreak in the community.
Doctors criticised the pace of Queensland’s vaccination program as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk promised to inoculate 1500 remaining healthcare workers still to receive the COVID jab.
Australian Medical Association president Omar Korshid said Queensland needed to explain why it had allowed medics to work in proximity to positive patients when they had not yet received a jab. “It’s very frustrating if they’re holding back doses which could have been given,” he said.
The latest round of community transmissions in Queensland originated from the infection of an unvaccinated doctor who was caring for a COVID-19 positive patient at the Princess Alexandra Hospital on March 9.
An unvaccinated nurse caught the virus on March 23. Genomic testing later linked the infection to a traveller who returned from India one day earlier with whom she had not had any contact.
Ms Palaszczuk refused to rule out extending the lockdown of Brisbane beyond Thursday as eight new cases were reported.
Federal health authorities declared Brisbane a COVID-19 hotspot and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned more cases were likely after a hen’s party in Byron Bay emerged as a superspreader event.
Queensland has received about 106,000 vaccine doses from the commonwealth but has administered only a little over 65,000. Nationally, 541,761 people had been vaccinated as of Monday night. NSW has vaccinated 96,273 people, WA 45,091, South Australia 22,798, and 13,091 had been vaccinated in Tasmania.
In Victoria, where two-thirds of health workers in Phase 1A have been vaccinated, total doses administered hit almost 100,000 as of Tuesday evening. The ACT has administered 9746 doses and the Northern Territory 7027.
The national vaccination rollout is picking up pace now that GPs are administering jabs and local supply of AstraZeneca vaccine is available. A total of 119,796 vaccines have been given by GPs in just over a week, and a further 82,542 vaccinations have been administered in aged care facilities.
Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath initially said on Tuesday the state had been holding back quantities of Pfizer vaccine for second doses. This was despite the commonwealth repeatedly advising the states they did not need to do so.
“The amount of vaccine we were supplied by the commonwealth did not all arrive on the first day,” Ms D’Ath said.
“It has progressively increased, just as our vaccinations have progressively increased. We had to wait for consistency of supply.
“We also had to keep some in reserve for the second vaccination because we can’t be sure, and the commonwealth can’t be sure, when the vaccine will arrive in Australia and when it will be distributed to the states. This is something that every jurisdiction is doing, we have to do it.”
Late on Tuesday Ms D’Ath appeared to contradict her earlier claim. “Our vaccinations are ramping up every day — and we will use all the vaccine that is given to us,” she said.
Federal government officials said the real reason for unadministered vaccines was a failure of the state to achieve rollout targets rather than holding reserves for second doses.
The commonwealth has only distributed half of the vaccine it has received from Pfizer to the states, keeping the rest on hand for second doses. The states have been told they should administer the entirety of the doses they have been supplied.
Federal Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly reiterated on Tuesday that state governments should not be stockpiling vaccines to account for second doses.
“There is no need for a state or territory to be keeping any vaccine aside for that purpose. That is the commonwealth’s responsibility,” Professor Kelly said.
Queensland on Tuesday tightened COVID-19 treatment protocols. The government has guaranteed no doctor or nurse will work with a patient with the virus unless they have been vaccinated. Ms Palaszczuk said all frontline health workers and hotel quarantine staff would receive their first vaccination by Wednesday. As of Tuesday morning, 89 per cent of those had received the first dose.
Ms D’Ath defended the pace of the state’s vaccine rollout. She said the state had last week met its mid-April target of vaccinating 20,000 people a week and it was “inevitable” that staff who were sick or on leave when they were due to be vaccinated would need their jab rescheduled.
Ms D’Ath said 65,129 people had been vaccinated under the Queensland Health rollout of the vaccine and about 5000 had been given their second dose.
Ten per cent of those had received the vaccination on Monday when 6400 people were given their first jab.
Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association chief executive Alison Verhoeven said it was disappointing unvaccinated workers had been caring for positive COVID-19 patients.
“We’re five or six weeks into the vaccination program now, and we should be ensuring all staff treating COVID patients are vaccinated,” she said.
Additional reporting: Ellie Dudley
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