Coronavirus: One-third of aged, disability care residents vaccinated
Only one-third of residential aged and disability care facilities nationwide have received COVID-19 vaccinations.
Only one-third of residential aged and disability care facilities nationwide have received COVID-19 vaccinations more than a month after the immunisation program began, as a new row erupted between the states and the commonwealth over supply delays.
Just 848 of 2500 residential aged care and disability care facilities have received initial doses of the vaccine and only 279 have been supplied with both Pfizer doses. Federal and state authorities continue to refuse to provide details about when the program would be complete.
The delays in the vaccination program turned into a public brawl between the commonwealth and the states, with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her NSW counterpart Gladys Berejiklian accusing the Morrison government of releasing misleading information.
Ms Berejiklian, responding to figures showing only half of all vaccine doses distributed to NSW had been used, said she wanted “to work with the federal government … but I will not have untrue statements made publicly about what is a complex system”.
“What is also extremely unfair is when we are given 24 or 48 hours notice about how many new doses we are getting, and as you can appreciate, disseminating that within 24 hours or 48 hours is a difficult task,” she said.
Ms Berejiklian added that she had written to Scott Morrison over her concerns about meeting an October deadline to have all first doses to be administered.
The Prime Minister and Health Minister Greg Hunt sought to hose down the rift, with Mr Morrison saying he wasn’t interested in a “tit-for-tat on vaccines”.
“What Australians want is for people to get vaccinated, governments to work together,” the Prime Minister said. “We’ll work with … all the governments. The national cabinet is meeting again next week and we’ll, I’m sure, have a discussion about that.”
Despite the public divide, Australia’s vaccination program finally appears to be ramping up. Health Department forecasts obtained by The Australian show the number of inoculations will hit 750,000 on Friday, triple the number at the start of last week.
While the states are responsible for distributing vaccines among frontline healthcare, quarantine and border workers, the commonwealth is in charge of aged care staff and residents.
Commonwealth health officials said on Wednesday 99,000 of about 190,000 nursing home residents had received at least one dose, although significantly fewer had received two doses.
“All commonwealth-funded residential aged care facilities across Australia have been allocated for scheduled COVID-19 vaccination clinics as part of the national rollout,” a health department spokesman said. “This includes over 2500 residential aged care facilities nationally. To date, over 99,000 vaccines have been delivered to aged care and disability facilities. Aged care residents have been vaccinated in 848 residential aged care and disability facilities, with 279 of those facilities having received a second dose.”
Despite Mr Hunt agreeing to release figures on how many aged care workers had been vaccinated so far, no data had been provided by his office to The Australian on Wednesday night.
While Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland have disclosed the number of high-risk healthcare workers who need to be vaccinated, and NSW on Wednesday said it had provided 100,000 immunisations, most states are refusing to provide real time information on inoculations.
Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid condemned rising tensions between state and commonwealth governments and said greater transparency and a better plan were needed.
“The commonwealth government needs to be transparent on the number of vaccines that have already been distributed, and what the projected quantities will be going forward,” Dr Khorshid said.
The AMA has also criticised Queensland, where health authorities have said they are withholding delivery of some vaccine doses because they cannot guarantee supply of a second dose.
That’s despite the commonwealth saying it had guaranteed those second doses.
The slow vaccination rollout among frontline health staff in Brisbane has been one factor in the two coronavirus clusters forming at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. Ms Palaszczuk and Deputy Premier Steven Miles on Wednesday again claimed the federal government had hindered the state’s vaccine program by failing to provide certainty of supply.
Mr Morrison said he remained committed to meeting his October deadline for all Australians to receive their first dose, despite the federal government being forced to amend its vaccine distribution timetable due to supply chain pressures. Almost 73,000 vaccinations were administered in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning, the highest daily delivery of vaccines since the program began.
Mr Morrison said all states and territories had been provided with a 12-week projection of dose distribution, mapping out weekly vaccine delivery timetables.
The clash with the states was sparked by the release of data, showing how many doses had been delivered to state health authorities compared with how many jabs had been administered.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud on Wednesday said state governments had “left (vaccination doses) in the rack when they could have put these things in people’s arms”. “We are going to help the states but they have to admit they have a problem because they have done three-fifths of bugger all and they are holding this nation back,” he said.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard responded angrily to the release of figures showing the state’s vaccination program was progressing slowly. “It is not appropriate that we wake up and find figures put into the media that haven’t been shared with any state or territory governments,” Mr Hazzard said. “I think the federal government should be offering apologies to not only our government but other governments around the country.”
The Victorian Health Department said the state had vaccinated two-thirds of all frontline health workers allocated to Phase 1A with at least one dose. Almost all hotel and quarantine workers have received at least one dose.
Queensland has vaccinated almost all frontline healthcare workers, with only a few hundred left. A total of 32,160 healthcare workers have been vaccinated in WA, including 4095 high-risk frontline staff. Three-quarters of healthcare staff from Perth’s three main hospitals have had the jab.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING: SARAH ELKS
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