Data: As of this Friday, Australia has administered a total of 4,786,362 vaccine doses, with an average of 107,832 doses administered per day over the past 7 days (up from an average of 79,800 doses per day the previous week). At the current pace, full vaccination of Australia’s adult population is expected to be completed by late April 2022, putting the country 11 months away from reaching herd immunity.
Also this week, here’s the latest news on Australia’s vaccine rollout:
1. According to The Guardian, Health Minister Greg Hunt this Tuesday put a new plan to the Coalition party room, which could allow vaccinated Australians to travel overseas, with quarantine requirements also relaxed on their return. Assessment of the plan is already underway and it could be trialled within the next 6 to 8 weeks. Those who could be exempt from hotel quarantine in Australia would include not only Australians, but travellers from countries with “verifiable vaccination status”, such as the United States, Canada, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
2. Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer warned this week that after Victorian clinics administered close to 24,000 Pfizer doses on Wednesday, Victoria’s Pfizer vaccine stocks are being rapidly depleted. NSW has been asked to send Pfizer doses to support Victoria, with AMA Victoria president Dr Roderick McRae saying: “if other states can support the supply, that would be an investment that benefits the whole of Australia.
3. At Friday’s National Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Scott Morrison committed to building a 500-bed quarantine facility at Avalon in Victoria, pledging $200 million, with the plan now close to being finalised. The Victorian Government will take on the facility’s operating costs going forward. Construction begins in September, with the facility expected to open in January next year.
4. With the government looking to ramp up the vaccine rollout, Australians aged 40 and over will become eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine nationwide from next week. National Cabinet has also sought further advice from medical experts on whether aged care workers should be required to be vaccinated, while strongly urging everyone working in aged care to voluntarily take steps to boost their own protection. Health officials told the Senate this week that an estimated 32,833 aged care workers (fewer than 10%) have been vaccinated.
5. Federal health authorities say there is no record of how many Australians returning from overseas have been vaccinated, or whether they have previously been infected with COVID-19. Although some states, including New South Wales, have begun compiling this data themselves, they have received no instruction to do so from the Federal Government.
6. The Federal Government has repeatedly said it hopes to introduce a system allowing some Australians who are fully vaccinated before returning to Australia to quarantine at home, rather than being required to undergo hotel quarantine and pay the $3,000 quarantine fee. This would free up more space in quarantine hotels for those wishing to enter the country, and help gradually reopen entry – closed since the border shut in March 2020 – to skilled migrants and other visa holders who have so far been refused entry.
Sources: ABC, The Age, The Australian, The Guardian, WHO, official websites of Australian state health departments
