MICHAEL KIDD:
Hello. We know this is a worrying time for people across Australia. We're seeing lower numbers of cases across the country today, but there is still a serious risk of COVID-19 in a number of regions and we all need to remain alert. In the past 24 hours, there have been 23 reported new cases in Australia, four of these overseas acquired in people in quarantine. 19 of these cases have been locally acquired and this includes 16 newly reported cases in New South Wales, two newly reported cases in Queensland, and one newly reported case in Western Australia. And there have been no new locally acquired cases reported in the Northern Territory or the other states. Three of the new cases in New South Wales are residents of the SummitCare residential aged care facility in Baulkham Hills, all reported as being fully vaccinated and all of these people are being transferred to the Westmead Hospital. Globally, in the past 24 hours, there have been nearly 380,000 new cases of COVID-19 reported, and 6790 deaths reported.
The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, the AHPPC, met again today and discussed the responses in New South Wales and the rest of the country. We're taking the outbreak at the SummitCare residential aged care facility very seriously, as we do with each outbreak in residential aged care facilities. The Commonwealth is working in partnership with New South Wales and the facility staff. The facility is in full lockdown and additional work force supports have been activated and testing of residents and staff has also been activated.
Today, all but one of the 2566 residential aged care facilities across the country have received their first and second dose COVID-19 vaccination clinics through the national vaccine rollout program. This level of vaccination has increased the protection levels of older people living in our nation's residential aged care facilities. The people working in aged care in Australia have demonstrated great commitment and dedication throughout the pandemic, and have continually improved practices to ensure older Australians are protected and receive the best quality care. I thank everyone working in aged care who's been vaccinated. It remains vital that those who have not yet been vaccinated do so as soon as possible, to provide this essential added layer of protection for the residents.
Vaccination, of course, is just one part of the protections now in place for residents of aged care facilities. Every residential aged care facility in the country now has an infection prevention and control nurse, and has detailed plans in place to respond to any cases of COVID-19. The Commonwealth continues to supply personal protective equipment to affected aged care facilities, as well as providing a surge workforce to back up nurses and aged care workers, in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak.
I thank everyone who has been vaccinated against COVID-19 in Australia. Well over 8.2 million doses, including over 5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, have been administered in Australia. Over 70 per cent of people aged over 70 years, over 60 per cent of people aged over 60 years, and over 50 per cent of people aged over 50 years have received at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, nearly 30 per cent of those aged over 16 years have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. So, please continue to get vaccinated. Please encourage your family members and friends to do so, especially those aged over 60 and those in the priority groups or those of increased risk of exposure or an increased risk of transmitting COVID-19 to those who are at greatest risk.
We are now starting the second doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine being administered, and I thank everybody who has been turning up over the last couple of weeks when it has been their turn to get the second dose of their vaccine. If you have not yet received a first dose, please make an appointment to do so today. And if it's time for the second dose, please turn up and get that important second dose and ensure you have sustained protection against COVID-19. These vaccines protect you and your family and the wider population against the risk of serious illness and death. They keep people out of hospital, they keep people out of intensive care units, and they reduce the risk of transmitting COVID-19 to other people, especially with the new variants of the virus, which- some of which are more transmissible.
From this week, selected general practices across Australia will also start to offer the Pfizer vaccine to their eligible patients, including those aged from 40 to 59 years of age. This week, 500 general practices will start to have the Pfizer vaccine available, and I'm told that nearly 40 per cent of these practices are in rural areas in the country. And during this month, another 800 general practices will come online with the Pfizer vaccine as well as the AstraZeneca vaccine. This includes many Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, which will be offering the Pfizer vaccine progressively through July and August.
I thank my colleagues in general practice, our nation's GPs, our primary care nurses, our reception staff, and our practice managers involved in the vaccine rollout. Please treat these people with politeness and respect when you're arranging your vaccination appointments. There are tens of thousands of dedicated Australians involved in our national COVID-19 rollout, and I thank you all. There will be a further update on the national vaccine rollout at tomorrow's press conference.
Even if you've been vaccinated, it still remains extremely important to continue to practise COVID-safe behaviours. Please continue to follow the restrictions in your state or territory, and keep up to date with the list of exposure sites and the associated health advice. Each state and territory is taking appropriate action based on their local health advice to protect residents, and the Commonwealth continues to do everything we can to support affected states and territories in their responses to outbreaks. We are now approaching the middle of winter, and this is a time when people may develop symptoms of cold or flu. But please, do not ignore these terms. It may be COVID-19. Please arrange to get tested.
I also acknowledge that many people are feeling quite fatigued after all that we've been through. And it's understandable if many people are struggling. Significant restrictions can be difficult and I take this opportunity to remind you to reach out if you need help. Speak to your loved ones, speak to your GP, call a hotline, or view the resources available to you at headtohealth.gov.au.
I am happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Professor Kidd, [indistinct]… there's been quite a lot of evidence now that COVID presents a risk to them in terms of blood pressure and other complications, yet they're still not listed as a priority to receive Pfizer as a group in and of themselves in Australia. Why is that the case? And will the AHPPC consider making it available to all pregnant women as a priority?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Thank you. So the question in case people can't hear, is about the advice for pregnant women receiving vaccination and whether pregnant women should be a priority group for vaccination. So, the at risk groups continue to be looked at each week by ATAGI, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation. ATAGI has provided advice on recommendations of vaccination for pregnant women, women who are breastfeeding, and has talked about increased risks. We need to wait for the advice from ATAGI as to whether pregnant women themselves become one of the risk groups for earlier priority vaccination.
QUESTION:
Professor, Kerry Chant said today that she'd like to see the vaccine rolled out for schoolchildren under 15 in 2022. I know there are studies underway into that issue, but do you have an update on that? Would you like to see happen, and is that feasible?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Thank you. So, the question is about, really, the timing of when we may be able to offer vaccines to children in Australia. At the moment, we have the Pfizer vaccine approved or people aged 16 and above, AstraZeneca for 18 and above. But we don't have vaccines available to children. There is, as you know, continuing research happening around the world, looking at safe and appropriate vaccines for use in younger people. We need to wait for that advice to come through. We'll need to wait for the Therapeutic Goods Administration to do its job, looking at the safety of vaccines in those particular age groups. I certainly hope we'll have protection available to young people sooner than 2022, but it really depends on the research and the developments around the world.
QUESTION:
Professor, the Health Minister, Greg Hunt, last week confirmed AHPPC was being asked to look at the exemptions process for compassionate cases. People returning from overseas into quarantine, perhaps to see dying relatives. Has that been discussed yet at a meeting? And can you provide any update?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Thank you. So, obviously compassion is really important with people coming back into the country. The issue has not yet been addressed by the AHPPC, we've been addressing the other issues leading up to the National Cabinet meetings. We had two meetings last week. But we'll be looking at that soon.
Could I talk to Madura on the phone?
QUESTION:
Thanks, Professor. I was just wondering so the research shows that the Alpha- sorry, the Delta variant, 50- 60 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha variant - correct me if I am wrong there. In Queensland, we've seen the Alpha, the cluster related to the Alpha variant grow larger than the cluster related to the Delta variant, even though in that case that person was infectious and in the community for a lot longer. What does the epidemiology, I guess, tell us about why this is the case?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Yes, thank you. It's a great question, Madura. So, what we know from overseas experience, as well as from what's happening in Australia, is that the Delta variant does appear to be more transmissible than some of the previous variants that we've seen emerge of COVID-19. But whether or not an individual transmits to other people depends on other factors as well, as you rightly point out. It's whether they are adhering to other measures to remain COVID-safe, whether the people that they are coming into contact with are put at risk of direct contact of transmission of the virus. So it's not surprising that we see different rates of transmission from different individual cases.
Thanks, Madura. Olivia?
QUESTION:
Thanks, Professor. How important is it that the states accept the vaccination threshold to be determined by the Doherty Institute and COVID taskforce rather than going their own way? And what's your view on what an achievable target might be? New South Wales Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, suggested 80 per cent of the total population being vaccinated to move through to the next phase. Is that realistic?
MICHAEL KIDD:
So, clearly, we want to see as many people vaccinated as possible. Vaccination provides protection to each individual, protecting them against the development of serious disease and the risk of death from COVID-19. Clearly, the more people who are vaccinated, the reduced risk of transmission of COVID-19 to other people within the community. As we've seen in examples around the world, is even with very high levels of vaccination - we've seen this, for example, in Israel, increasingly in the United Kingdom - you can still get significant outbreaks and transmission of COVID-19 occurring, so there is no magic figure available at the moment as to what a threshold may or may not be.
QUESTION:
Just picking up on that, Professor, do you think it's disingenuous to refer to these outbreaks overseas where there are places of high vaccination, given that their death rates and hospitalisation rates are dramatically lower. And if Australia is to shift to focusing on those, don't you think it is time to have those hard goals of what we're aiming for, knowing that cases may increase but it would be not the same in our hospitals and in terms of deaths?
MICHAEL KIDD:
It's very important that we learn from what's happening right around the world throughout this pandemic, and of course we've been doing that over the past 18 months while we've all been learning to live with COVID-19. So, there are lessons to be learned from overseas. There's also lessons to be learned from what happens in each outbreak that occurs in Australia. You are quite right. As vaccination levels have gone up in a number of countries overseas - even though we've seen outbreaks occurring - we have seen less of an impact on older people because in those countries older people have been protected in very large numbers. And as a consequence, reductions in the number of people who have been hospitalised and who have died, compared to the earlier outbreaks, which we had throughout last year. So, yes, as I say, it's really important that we continue to learn from each other.
QUESTION:
Just picking up again - sorry - on older people. If we've almost completely offered the vaccine to two doses to every aged care facility, do you have an insight into what the take-up rate within those facilities is? Even though they've all been now covered, it could be that half of the residents decided not to opt in to that. Will the Government or the AHPPC survey to get a sense of how many residents in those facilities took up that option?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Yes. So, it's very important that as many residents as possible are vaccinated in our residential aged care facilities. We know that there are some people who have not been able to be vaccinated, for example, people who are very unwell, at the end of life, may have chosen not to receive the vaccine. And of course we have had people unwell with other illnesses at the time that vaccines have been offered who have had to defer getting their vaccinations. Now, the Commonwealth is focusing very much on catching up with all of those people who are eligible for the vaccine, who wish to be vaccinated and have not yet been vaccinated in aged care facilities. At the same time, we have that added layer of protection as we vaccinate more and more of the staff working in facilities across the country.
Thank you, everybody. Thank you to our AUSLAN interpreters. Thank you.
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