All Victorian hotel staff get Covid-19 jabs ahead of flights

All of Victoria’s hotel quarantine workers will have had a vaccination when international flights resume on Thursday.

Victorian Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng. Picture: Aaron Francis

All of Victoria’s hotel quarantine workers who have contact with returned travellers will have had a COVID-19 vaccination when international flights into the state resume on Thursday.

The Andrews government said on Monday 4984 first doses of the vaccine had been administered to “almost all” hotel quarantine workers — including COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria staff, hotel staff, police and Australian Defence Force personnel — while 2283 of them had had their second doses.

In NSW, all hotel quarantine workers had received their first jab by March 24, while in Queensland 89 per cent of frontline health workers and people working in hotel quarantine had received at least the first dose of the vaccine as of last Wednesday.

An Andrews government spokeswoman said a review of Victoria’s hotel quarantine program by Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng had recommended hotel quarantine workers in resident-facing roles receive the first vaccine dose prior to international flights resuming.

“Second doses are well under way, with all expected to be completed by the end of April. An ongoing vaccination program will continue for new staff,” she said. “Only those vaccinated with at least one dose will be working in the hotel quarantine program.”

Leaks from Victoria’s hotel quarantine program sparked the state’s second wave of corona­virus in 2020, resulting in the deaths of 800 people, while more recent breaches saw three transmissions of the virus in three separate quarantine hotels in the space of five days in January, with one of those clusters sparking a five-day lockdown and suspension of international arrivals.

Victoria has just one known active case of coronavirus in an airline worker, with no local transmission for 38 days.

Senior Andrews government minister Jacinta Allan said a “huge amount” of work had been undertaken to get the hotel quarantine program to resume, including reviewing ventilation systems and vaccinating staff.

Amid blame-shifting between the Morrison government and the states over the slow pace of Australia’s vaccine rollout, which saw fewer than a million people vaccinated by the end of March despite a target of four million, Ms Allan said Victoria had exceeded targets set for it by the commonwealth in im­mun­ising more than 116,000 people.

“Should there be any change to the rollout of the program, any consideration of additional responsibilities, that’s really something that would need to be driven by the commonwealth government, given that the supply side, the provision of the vaccine, is controlled by the commonwealth.” She said she was advised Victoria had not stockpiled vaccine supplies.

NSW has vaccinated more than 126,000 people, while Queensland had administered 86,985 doses as of Friday.

Additional reporting: Charlie Peel