KARL STEFANOVIC:
Queensland Health has come under fire for claiming a man held a 25-person party while waiting for COVID test results.
LEILA MCKINNON:
Wouldn't your heart beat faster if you'd heard that you were being blamed for that. They have since been forced to backtrack, admitting the man has actually at home just with his house mates and one other. We're joined now by Chief Health Officer, Professor Paul Kelly. Professor, have you been in touch with Queensland Health to find out how they got this wrong?
PAUL KELLY:
We've been in daily contact with Queensland Health. In fact, we've had daily AHPPC meetings again over the weekend, to discuss the situation in Queensland, so we're very familiar with where they're up to.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay. New South Wales has handled this pretty well. I noticed that they had police officers at the airport yesterday, with people coming off flights from Brisbane. They had health officials there in full gear, just to make sure that people weren't spreading it, if they had it. That's the appropriate response. WA has taken it a step further, and placing Queenslanders into quarantine. Two very different ways of looking at the same problem.
PAUL KELLY:
Yes. So, this has been a feature, unfortunately, of the Australian response for the last few months, although I must say, though, the Chief Health Officers on the AHPPC are very much more together on the responses at the moment. So, in a way, they're looking to make sure that they do find people that may have been exposed to the virus in Queensland, and to get them tested, and so, really how that's handled in each of the states is, indeed, a state matter.
LEILA MCKINNON:
We're all starting to relax a lot. I was in a huge crowd on Saturday night at Hamilton. It is good to see the arts back on track and being supported. But are we becoming a bit complacent? It felt a bit worrying?
PAUL KELLY:
We're into a new stage of the pandemic here in Australia with the vaccine rolling out. There will be- we'll become more protected. But, at the moment, with us so open, we are- incursions from hotel quarantine or from overseas at least, are a concern. And so, we will need to take those seriously and do all of those public health controls that we've found to be so effective in the last few months and that's the way we'll have to work. But it is great to see that we're able to get out and do more things and everyone can enjoy that for the time being. Very important though, that when your turn comes up to be vaccinated, that you take that opportunity.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Look, I know that you're empathetic and sympathetic towards different states and their approach to these things. But quarantining people for two weeks as opposed to just contact tracing is pretty extreme, isn't it?
PAUL KELLY:
Well, Western Australia has had their very successful way of doing things right from the beginning, and I think they know what they're doing, and really, as I say, it's a matter for the West Australian Government to decide what happens in Western Australia in relation to that. That's an old story that we won't go over again. But I think the way that New South Wales has been handling this just really demonstrates how far we've come in terms of supporting each other across state borders. So, the fact that they know about those 20,000 people that have been- have arrived from Queensland during this concerning time is testament to those structures that we've set up, and people should be very confident that that's the way we'll get on top of the virus.
LEILA MCKINNON:
Yeah, contact tracing has been an outstanding success. But what about the vaccine rollout? Is that a bit slow?
PAUL KELLY:
Well, we've been hampered up until this week, really, by our supply. You will recall that we were relying on 3.8 million doses from overseas. Only 700,000 of those arrived. So, I think if you do the maths, you'll work out why we are where we are [audio skip] which is an extraordinary time. We've had over half a million Australians have had the vaccine already, and that's going to really scale up now that we've got- [indistinct] almost 1500, I believe, GPs this week. So, up from last week, as well as the state and Territory clinics and the in-reach into aged care. And those GPs will, from this week, will be vaccinating with our own product produced in Melbourne. So, we have a completely secure supply. It's rolled out over the weekend and late last week to GPs all around Australia, as well as the state and territory clinics, and so that's going to really ramp up our ability to vaccinate quickly.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Look, I noticed this morning that out of the UK, they're very concerned about the supply. Again, a reminder of how good it is that we have our own supply, but they've got dramas with the EU supply of the vaccine in the UK and also India. Do you have any idea of the numbers rolling out from our own supply?
PAUL KELLY:
Yes. So, we've rolled out several hundred thousand over the last week, and that will continue to increase. The CSL have assured us, and we had a meeting with them again on Friday, that they will reach that 1 million a week soon, and we're looking to exceed that over time. But, for the time being, we've got what we've got. We're getting it out as soon as we get it to places where those jabs can start happening. And so, again, another call-out to Australians who are in that group that are being offered vaccination now, to roll up your sleeves and get to the place you can get that vaccine as soon as you can.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Excellent Professor. Always good to talk to you. Thanks for your time today.
LEILA MCKINNON:
Thank you for that.
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