MADELEINE MORRIS:
Alright. Well, let's stick with the COVID situation and bring in Australia's Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Michael Kidd. He joins us live from Canberra. Professor Kidd, thank you so much for coming in to speaking [sic] to us this morning. The major COVID news in Australia at the moment is the paediatric rollout. We have seen some people getting appointments, lots of successful vaccinations for kids. Lots of cancellations from GPs and pharmacies because they just don't have enough stock. Now, GPs say they need more stock. People want to get their kids vaccinated at GPs. Is it time to re-calibrate the stock from the state hubs and back into GPs and pharmacies?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Well, thank you. Firstly, the good news. Yesterday, the first day of the rollout of the vaccination program for the five to 11-year-olds, we had over 35,000 five to 11-year-olds who were vaccinated - in fact, 35,077, so huge thanks to everybody who turned up to get vaccinated yesterday. We currently have over 6000 places in Australia where people can have their children vaccinated against COVID-19. That will increase to 8000 sites over the coming few days, and that includes general practices, pharmacies, the state and territory hubs and also the Aboriginal medical services. Now, I do acknowledge, as a GP, that many parents would like to have their children vaccinated by their own GP or by the nurse at the general practice where their children are used to receiving their childhood vaccines, and we're working very closely with all the general practices which are involved in the rollout to make sure that general practices have the stock that they need. Please, if you do go online and you're having difficulty making an appointment, you can of course make appointments at your local pharmacies as well. And there will be more appointments becoming available every hour as more and more clinics open up their appointment systems.
MADELEINE MORRIS:
Can I just talk about the waste of time, though -parental time though, parental time specifically - trying to get this done. I mean, I'm speaking as a parent. I have spent hours trying to get my kids into state vaccination hubs, calling around GPs, calling around pharmacies - that's here in Victoria. That's not the case for everyone. How- are you going to change the distribution patterns away from state hubs to GPs, because GPs clearly need more? Is that going to be a change that you're going to be making this week?
MICHAEL KIDD:
So Madeleine, firstly, we have enough of the paediatric Pfizer vaccine for every five to 11-year-old to receive their first dose by the end of this month. So, there is no need to panic about not being able to get an appointment over the next few days. There will be appointments available over the next couple of weeks before children are starting to go back to school in Australia. The hubs are playing a very important role in our vaccine rollout, as are our general practices and pharmacies and other centres as well, so it's important that we have this distribution network of clinics available for people to be able to get their vaccines in a timely manner.
MADELEINE MORRIS:
So you are not going to change the distribution, though, is my question?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Well, that's probably a question for Lieutenant General Frewen, who of course is leading the logistics for the vaccine rollout in Australia.
MADELEINE MORRIS:
Okay. Can I just talk to you about schools? Now, Queensland is putting back schools by two weeks up until year 10. Is there an argument for [audio skips]…
MICHAEL KIDD:
[Audio skips] …for the children of Australia is the top item on the agenda for the National Cabinet meeting, so I don't want to pre-empt the decisions which are going to be made at that meeting. But this is a top priority, getting the children of Australia back to school, and of course the vaccination program for the five to 11-year-olds, and the continuing vaccination program for those aged 12 and above, is a very important part of ensuring that that happens.
MADELEINE MORRIS:
What will be your advice, though, to National Cabinet on that?
MICHAEL KIDD:
So I can't pre-empt the advice which is being provided to the National Cabinet. We'll have to wait to hear the outcomes from National Cabinet on Thursday.
MADELEINE MORRIS:
Okay. Just on the issue of key workers. Now, the key Government advisory panel which you are on has approved new isolation rules for key workers. Can you explain what those are?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Yes. So yesterday, we publicly released the guidance for workers in the food and grocery distribution industry, and I want to make it very clear that if a person working in that industry is diagnosed with COVID-19, either through a PCR test or a rapid antigen test, that person needs to isolate at home, and the same applies to their close contacts- to their household contacts. What has happened in the new guidance is that there is a distinction between those who are at high risk of having contracted COVID-19, and those who are deemed to be at low risk of having contracted COVID-19. And those who are deemed to be at low risk will still be required to be assessed after symptoms each day. They'll be required to have testing to make sure that they don't become positive for COVID-19, but they will also be allowed to continue to work in those non-public-facing roles in food and grocery distribution. What is important, though, is that every business, every industry, is required to have their own COVID-safe plan to make sure that they are doing all that they can to maximise the safety of their workforce and of anyone else who comes into contact with those workers.
MADELEINE MORRIS:
Okay. Just a final question to you on the big news of the day, which is Novak Djokovic. Now, Alex Hawke, the Immigration Minister, can still cancel his visa on a couple of grounds, one of them being that he poses a health risk to Australia. Does, as an unvaccinated person, he pose a health risk to Australia?
MICHAEL KIDD:
So obviously I can't provide any specific details about that case, I don't have any information on it. But it is really important that everyone is getting vaccinated against COVID-19. We know that these vaccines are extremely effective at preventing people from becoming seriously unwell, from overwhelming our health care systems, our hospitals, our ambulance services, and at the same time, everyone who is vaccinated contributes towards protecting everyone else in the population, and that includes those who, at the moment, cannot be vaccinated. We've just yesterday introduced the five to 11 vaccine program. We're not able to vaccinate those aged under five, and there are other people in Australia who are not able to be vaccinated either, so very important that we're all doing our part and getting vaccinated.
MADELEINE MORRIS:
Okay. Michael Kidd, thanks so much for joining us from Canberra this morning.
MICHAEL KIDD:
Thanks, Madeleine.
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