Under-40s in surge for AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab

AstraZeneca dosages have ­increased sharply among people aged under 40 in NSW and Vic­toria, with inoculations rising over the past week amid lockdowns in both states.

Chelsea Paton, 22, receives her AstraZeneca shot from doctor Rob Nelson at Northbridge Medical Practice in Sydney on Friday. Picture: Chris Pavlich

AstraZeneca dosages have ­increased sharply among people aged under 40 in NSW and Victoria, with inoculations rising over the past week amid lockdowns in both states and heightened messaging campaigns from state and federal leaders.

However, figures released to The Weekend Australian show NSW has not requested the vast proportion of its AstraZeneca allocation from the federal government; the state has ordered 164,020 vaccine doses of an available 964,820 held by the commonwealth, or 17 per cent of its share.

It is the lowest take-up of AstraZeneca by any state or other jurisdiction.

NSW recorded 170 fresh cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday, with 52 cases infectious in the community and a further 53 under investigation for their isolation status. The majority of these new cases, 119, were detected in southwestern and western Sydney local health districts.

On Friday NSW Health officials suspended non-elective surgery at public hospitals across Greater Sydney from Monday to preserve intensive care resources for incoming Covid-19 patients.

There are 187 Covid cases being treated in Sydney hospitals, with 58 patients in intensive care and 24 people requiring a ventilator.

“All emergency surgery and urgent elective surgery will continue unaffected,” officials said, adding that more than 500 intensive care beds remained available through the health system.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard on Friday criticised the federal government over the state’s lack of available vaccines, urging the commonwealth to “step up and give us more vaccines in NSW”. “There is a certain allocation they have talked about giving us over the next few months. My strong message is the vaccines are needed now and we need to get them out,” he told reporters.

Asked why the state had not sought 800,000 stockpiled doses of AstraZeneca from the federal government, a spokeswoman referred inquiries to NSW Health, which did not respond by deadline.

The Weekend Australian understands the state is ordering roughly 63,000 doses from the commonwealth each week. NSW has seen the greatest increase in AstraZeneca take-up among people under 40, with 17,877 people receiving doses in the five days to Thursday compared to the previous seven-day total of 8770.

 

Trend increases were also noted in Victoria, where 4762 people had sought the vaccine over the past five days compared to the previous seven-day total of 5542. But elsewhere, numbers remained low, albeit with upticks recorded; Queenslanders sought 1086 doses in the past five days compared to 977 in the previous seven days.

Nationally, 7264 doses were administered in the five days to Thursday, the highest since data collection began on March 6; 73,028 under-40s have been inoculated with AstraZeneca since June 28. Data sighted by The Weekend Australian also shows a mild rise in take-up of the vaccine among people 40-60 in NSW.

Health officials said on Friday they were being frustrated by patients presenting for assistance long after they had become symptomatic.

“We’ve seen people present very late for care,” said NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant. “I’m just struck by the tragedy of it, that we’ve had a number of people that are presented to hospital severely unwell and sometimes dead … people need to know with Covid, you can deteriorate quite quickly.”

Chelsea Paton, 22, said she was nervous about obtaining her first AstraZeneca shot at Northbridge Medical Practice on Friday but wanted to do everything in her power to bring Sydney’s lockdown to an end. “I don’t want to be in this lockdown forever, and I don’t think anyone else does either, and I think that starts with people my age getting vaccinated,” she said.