Immunisation rethink to put over-50s in line for Covid-19 jabs

Australians over the age of 50 could be vaccinated with AstraZeneca within weeks as national cabinet considers bringing forward the rollout.

Scott Morrison plans for a ‘12-week sprint’ to get younger people immunised by the end of the year. Picture: Dylan Coker

Australians over the age of 50 could be vaccinated with AstraZeneca within weeks as national cabinet considers bringing forward the rollout and Scott Morrison plans for a “12-week sprint” to get younger people immunised by the end of the year.

The vaccination of up to 15.8 million 50- to 69-year-olds was due to begin mid-year but the Prime Minister revealed it could happen sooner amid concerns not all available doses were being administered.

There was a drop off in state-administered doses after Australia’s health experts advised that the Pfizer vaccine was preferred for under-50s because of a very rare blood clot disorder associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“There are strong, strong ­arguments for the bring forward of over-50s with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is a safe and effective vaccine for those aged over 50,” Mr Morrison said.

“We don’t want to see one ­vaccine that’s rolling off the line and going through the approval processes and the batch testing sitting in a fridge.

“If there is someone over 50 who is there and wants to take that vaccine, we’ll be looking at how that can be achieved today and in what type of time­frame we might commence that process.

“There’ll be no lessening of ­effort on focusing on that most important vulnerable group (of over 70s) as well as the key frontline health workers that are part of the 1a and 1b program.”

Government data released on Monday revealed that of the 2.4 million available vaccines, nearly 1.6 million doses had been administered as of Sunday.

National cabinet agreed ­in principle on Monday to bring ­forward vaccinations for over-50s and prepare more mass hubs across the states as Mr Morrison comes under pressure to ramp up the rollout and reinstall confidence in the delayed ­program.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk dubbed the first of the bi-weekly national cabinet meetings to be held under a new “warlike footing” a “big reset”.

States considering mass vaccination hubs for 50- to 69-year-olds have been told they would need to be additional to GPs, whom Mr Morrison said were “essential” to delivering the ­AstraZeneca jab.

Large vaccination centres for under-50s would depend on when 20 million extra Pfizer doses and the Novavax become available in Australia, expected in the final three months of the year.

“That would be effectively, if we wished, a 12-week sprint, to be able to do that safely and effectively, and there’d need to be plenty of planning to achieve that,” Mr Morrison said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said “we need to really crack on with it” and disagreed with Health Minister Greg Hunt after he refused to guarantee Australia’s international border would reopen even if the whole country was vaccinated.

“We should be far less rigid in how we approach the vaccine rollout … I don’t know how long I’ve been saying that NSW is ready to step up,” Ms Berejiklian said. “I don’t agree with comments made last week to say that even if the vaccine’s rolled out to the population, that we still can’t travel. I don’t buy that.”

There was no plan put to ­national cabinet to reopen the international border on Monday but Mr Morrison said there could be an ad hoc approach where some states allowed vaccinated Australians to quarantine at home upon returning from overseas and others remained closed off.

Mr Morrison’s proposal to get immunised Australians travelling for essential reasons and using home quarantine in the ­second half of the year faces ­resistance from states such as Western Australia, whose Premier, Mark McGowan, is a “strong ­supporter of formal, secure ­quarantine”.

“When you look at how states have reacted over the course of the last year, many of them have different positions on those ­(border and quarantine) issues,” Mr Morrison said. “I would seek to achieve as much national consistency as we possibly could but you rightly point out that public health is a matter of state jurisdiction and the commonwealth is not in a position to direct that in any way, shape or form.”

Opposition health spokesman Mark Butler said there needed to be a new vaccination plan with clear timelines and targets.

“The last one, which had targets like four million Australians by the end of March, the job done by October, is clearly in tatters,” he said. “We need a new plan with ­revised timelines and targets, one which ensures that state governments are given confidence by the commonwealth and they’ll be able to participate more fully in this vaccine rollout.”