Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has insisted the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is on track, with all remaining healthcare workers to receive their first dose of vaccine "over the next 48 hours".
Key points:
- The Chief Health Officer has mandated that only healthcare workers who are vaccinated can treat COVID-positive cases
- Queensland has been stockpiling vaccine shots so that everyone who has had one shot has a second dose available for them
- The Commonwealth's Chief Medical Officer says no state should need to stockpile vaccines
The assurance comes after a nurse at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital became the second unvaccinated healthcare worker to catch the virus this month, following a doctor just weeks ago at the same hospital.
The major hospital was last night sent into lockdown for the second time this month over the unfolding coronavirus outbreak that has been linked to the hospital's infectious diseases ward.
"The rollout of the vaccine has been happening, so I just want to reassure Queenslanders about that," Ms Palaszczuk said.
The promise comes as Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates criticised the government's vaccine rollout for being too slow.
Healthcare workers needing vaccine grows
Frontline healthcare workers are the first round of people to receive the vaccine in a priority group known as 1a.
From today, only healthcare workers who have been vaccinated can treat COVID-19 patients in Queensland.
The state's health officials have said 89 per cent of frontline health workers have already received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
This means Queensland is on track with the Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young's original slated timeframe for all 125,000 frontline healthcare workers to be vaccinated by April 4 — six weeks after the first Pfizer doses were distributed to Queensland by the federal government.
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said alongside a higher number of positive COVID cases being cared for in hospitals, the number of frontline staff in the first priority group needing to be vaccinated had also increased.
"We said we were looking at doing that [vaccinating healthcare workers] in six weeks," Ms D'Ath said.
"That's what we've done, and we've done that despite increasing it another 4,500 people [who need] to get vaccinated.
It is unclear how and why unvaccinated staff came into contact with positive patients in recent weeks.
Dr Young said the latest infected nurse had not been directly treating COVID-19 patients.
AAP: Darren England
)On Tuesday, Dr Young announced she would mandate that only healthcare workers who have had their first dose of vaccine, whether it be Pfizer or AstraZeneca, could work directly with confirmed cases of COVID-19.
She said she had been giving the same verbal directions to healthcare staff for several weeks.
Vaccine rollout ramped up amid stockpiling
The latest data from the Federal Department of Health shows Queensland has received 106,000 doses of vaccine but has only administered 65,129 doses — equating to just over 60 per cent.
Vaccine supplies are subject to change and dependant on the Commonwealth, which is responsible for guaranteeing the supply to all states and territories.
But in the last few days, the pace that vaccines have been administered has ramped up.
Queensland's Health Minister Yvette D'Ath confirmed that 20,000 vaccinations had been administered in the last seven days, with 6,000 doses given on March 29.
She argued the state had not been slow to vaccinate but had needed to wait until it had reached a "critical mass" of local vaccine stockpiles.
"We have to hold back enough Pfizer to give them their second vaccination, because we can't be sure, and even the Commonwealth can't be sure when that Pfizer delivery is going to come to Australia, and also when it is going to get out to the individual states," she said.
"So we don't want to vaccinate all of these people and then turn around and say in 21 days – sorry, we can't give you the second vaccine because we don't have enough.
"We have to be careful to make sure that we manage the vaccines."
But Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly dismissed that reasoning, and said there was no need for any state or territory to stockpile vaccines.
"We've been very clear in relation to the Pfizer vaccine — because the second dose needs to be given three weeks after the first — the Commonwealth, as part of our responsibility, will be keeping a second dose available for every single person that gets a first dose," Dr Kelly said.
Opposition says vaccine delays 'unacceptable'
Opposition health spokswoman Ros Bates said she believed the vaccine rollout had been too slow.
"We only had three to five cases four to five weeks ago — now we're into the 70s," she said.
"The biggest breach of all is allowing doctors and nurses to deal with COVID-positive patients in COVID wards."
But Ms D'Ath said the protocol to only have vaccinated healthcare workers treating COVID-positive patients would not have been possible two weeks ago.
AAP: Darren England
)"We're fortunate we're at that point now where we'll be able to bring that protocol in, but to say that we could have done that two weeks ago would have meant that we were putting our staff at risk and the patients we were managing because we wouldn't have had enough staff vaccinated at that time," she said.
Queensland Nurses and Midwives' Union (QNMU) secretary Beth Mohle said the vaccine rollout was complicated, and had added complexity given health was a 24/7 operation, which presented scheduling challenges.
"This unprecedented rollout is occurring on an enormous scale and has faced some issues regarding federal supply of the vaccine," Ms Mohle said.
Dr Young said it had always been her plan to enforce the new mandate.
"The plan was always once we had people vaccinated, because we needed to have people available to look after all these cases, and as you heard earlier, we've gone very, very rapidly from five cases in just over a month to 78," she said.
"So, we need staff to look after these cases.
"And now all of those staff will have had the opportunity to be vaccinated, so it will be mandated that only vaccinated staff can work directly with COVID-positive cases.
"It is just so unfortunate that this outbreak has occurred when it did — another month and all of these staff would absolutely have been protected."
What you need to know about coronavirus:
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIxLTAzLTMxL3F1ZWVuc2xhbmQtY292aWQtdmFjY2luZS1yb2xsb3V0LWRlbGF5ZWQtY29yb25hdmlydXMtb3V0YnJlYWsvMTAwMDM4NDc40gEoaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEwMDAzODQ3OA?oc=5
2021-03-30 19:48:50Z
CAIiEK2N-66CKB0vh4PBGQdxLygqFggEKg4IACoGCAow3vI9MPeaCDDciw4
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Queensland's vaccine rollout ramped up among frontline healthcare workers as authorities insist inoculations 'on track' - ABC News"
Post a Comment