Coronavirus: Vaccinated Aussies may still transmit Covid, warns Paul Kelly

Vaccinated Australians won’t be able to re-enter the country quarantine-free, Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has warned.

Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly says vaccinated Australians may still transmit coronavirus to others. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Sarah Matray

Australians overseas who are vaccinated against COVID-19 cannot return home quarantine-free because some vaccines may not stop them from transmitting the disease to others, Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has warned.

The Pfizer vaccine has been approved for use in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, with Professor Kelly already fielding inquiries about whether Australians who receive a full dose can fly home without being forced into hotel quarantine.

It comes as the UK Home Office issued new advice to foreign nationals whose visas expire before January 31, saying they must request additional time to stay in the country if they want to leave but cannot do so because of travel restrictions or self-isolation related to the coronavirus.

Scott Morrison said there were just under 5000 Australians in the UK registered as wanting to come home, the second largest group behind India with 10,000 Aussies.

Professor Kelly said no decision would be made on allowing vaccinated Australians to re-enter the country quarantine-free until January or later.

Opposition home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally holds a photo of stranded Australians overseas, Andrew and Claire Burles with one-year-old Chester. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

The AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, all of which the Morrison government has agreements for, had been effective in protecting the vaccinated person from getting any coronavirus symptoms but there were still question marks around transmission.

“The AstraZeneca vaccine has already looked at whether that vaccine protects against asymptomatic illness. At the moment from the interim analysis that was published in The Lancet journal last week, it demonstrates it probably doesn’t,” Professor Kelly said.

“So it could be that people may have asymptomatic disease after having the vaccine and not know it. And that, as we know, can transmit to others.”

Professor Kelly was considering what modelling needed to be done before deciding how to treat returning Australians who had been vaccinated.

“It sounds simple but it’s not simple. I think it will rely very much on where people have come from, what vaccine they’ve had, whether they’ve had the two doses, when they had those two doses. What is the situation here in Australia?” Professor Kelly said.

The Prime Minister said there were still more than 30,000 Australians wanting to come home – as of last Friday there were 38,655 – but the government had managed to help 52,000 back into the country since the middle of September.

Another 8000 Australians would like to return next year.

“We are looking to get you home as soon as we possibly can and that is what the record shows. We know you want to come home and you have every right to come home. You are Australian and you are my first priority in terms of people coming back into the country,” Mr Morrison said on Seven’s Morning Show.