Mass Covid-19 jab facilities ‘must be used now’

Health experts call for a wide network of mass immunisation centres to provide an immediate boost to the flagging vaccine rollout.

University of NSW epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws. Picture: Gary Ramage

Health experts have called for the establishment of a wide network of mass immunisation centres in Australia to provide an immediate boost to the nation’s flagging COVID-19 vaccine program.

University of NSW epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws, who is an adviser to the World Health Organisation, said Australia would need to perform on average 132,000 vaccinations every day if the October time frame of the bulk of the population receiving at least one shot was to be met.

“We’re not doing very well so far,” Professor McLaws said. “At the current rate they’re not going to make that deadline at all. They will need to increase the daily ­vaccination rate sevenfold if everyone is to receive at least one dose by October.”

The federal government says it plans to set up mass vaccination centres as the vaccine rollout ­continues but Professor McLaws questioned whether the plans were of the scale required.

“Their definition of mass vaccination and mine are very different,” she said. “You need a lot of them. I’m thinking of what is done during Ebola, polio, all of the vaccination programs since time ­immemorial.

“If people can’t get to the stadiums, then open up the parks in each suburb, open up the schoolyards on weekends.”

Australia has so far vaccinated about one million people at the rate of about 3.3 vaccinations per hundred people. In contrast, by week six of their vaccination programs, Israel had immunised 54 per 100 people and the UK 7.4 per 100 people.

Opposition health spokesman Mark Butler said on Tuesday that he could not understand the government’s reluctance to use mass vaccination hubs — with warehouses and stadiums being used in countries like Britain — and also demanded that pharmacists be used sooner.

“I don’t understand why the commonwealth is so resistant to an idea that’s been rolled out in pretty much every country I’ve looked at around the world,” Mr Butler told ABC radio.

“We should bring on pharmacists sooner. At the moment it doesn’t look like pharmacists will be brought into the strategy until June at the latest.

“I don’t think the numbers lie. And the numbers show how far behind we are … the strategy put together by the commonwealth is not working.”

University of Sydney vaccine expert Robert Booys also backed the establishment of mass vaccination centres. “Our vaccine rollout has been less than adequate so far,” he said.

“I think it will make a really big difference to have large sites with well-trained people with large supplies.”

However, Rod Pearce, the chair of the Immunisation Coalition, said the GP network had the capacity to deliver the majority of vaccinations. Last year, general practice surgeries delivered 17 million flu jabs.

“I think general practice has got a huge capacity to absorb vaccine-giving if the supply becomes reliable,” Dr Pearce said.

Acting Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd said he was not ruling out the use of US-style mass vaccination hubs to speed up the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

Dr Kidd said the commonwealth was already in discussions with the states about the use of suitable sites.

Scott Morrison on Tuesday denied there was any “hold-up” in distributing COVID-19 vaccines, saying the government missed its target of four million jabs by April because it did not receive at least three million vaccine doses.

The Prime Minister said the country’s rollout was doing well relative to a number of other ­developed nations.

“At this stage in the rollout it’s actually better than where Germany was, it’s better than where New Zealand was, it’s better than where South Korea was and Japan was,” he said.

At least 854,983 Australians have now had at least one dose of the vaccine, and 270,943 jabs have been administered by GPS.

Some 112,830 people in dis­ability support facilities have also been inoculated.