MATT SHIRVINGTON:
Well, no new restrictions have been imposed following an emergency National Cabinet Meeting, despite record daily case numbers. But indoor mask wearing has been strongly recommended. The Prime Minister is also pushing to change travel rules. In a bid to ease COVID testing chaos PCR swabs could be scrapped in favour of rapid kits for interstate travel. Leaders are also considering a more consistent criteria for casual contacts. For now, the interval for booster shots will remain at five months. But more state vaccination hubs will start to ramp back up.
Lieutenant General John Frewen is in charge of the nation's Vaccine Taskforce and joins me now. Good morning to you. Well…
JOHN FREWEN:
Hi Matt.
MATT SHIRVINGTON:
Are we doing enough at the moment to protect Australians from this growing Omicron threat?
JOHN FREWEN:
Yeah. Matt, as you've indicated a, a layered approach is always best here, so we do need all of those COVID-safe practices; we do need, you know, the testing and the tracing and all of those sorts of things. But, vaccinations and boosters remain a, a really essential part of helping keep people safe.
The booster program has commenced, it's, it's taken off at speed. We have had almost two million people now come forward for their boosters, so that's been great to see. You've mentioned, we're working closely with the states and territories, they're going to ramp up the state facilities as well early in the New Year. We've already gone from about 500,000 doses a week to a million doses a week just since the ATAGI shift from six months to five months a bit over a week ago. But, you know, in the New Year now we expect to ramp up to, to more than two million doses a week, hopefully.
MATT SHIRVINGTON:
Yeah. The Prime Minister mentioned 350,000 a day is the target there. What about this decision? ATAGI still settling on five months between booster shots? Is that fair?
JOHN FREWEN:
Yeah. No. So ATAGI, I mean, this has got to be driven by medical advice. I mean, vaccines, you know, and the effects of vaccines and the efficacy of vaccines is, is very much a, a medical decision, so we're awaiting ATAGI advice. But we're ready, we adapted very quickly to the shift from six to five months. If it is shifted to four months, or something else, then we're postured to make sure that people will have every opportunity to get boosted as quickly as they can.
MATT SHIRVINGTON:
It's been a game changer, the Novavax vaccine could be coming to Australia very, very soon. Where is that at with its final approval? And when do you think it will be rolled out?
JOHN FREWEN:
Yeah. So, they're still going through the final approval process. So, we're looking forward to having Novavax in play as well. We don't anticipate that will be before the New Year but we'd look forward to getting it as, as soon as we can in the New Year.
MATT SHIRVINGTON:
Yeah. That's the combined flu and COVID shot. Kids - now this is a really interesting one as well - five to 11 will be able to get vaccinated from next month, 10 January. How much uptake do you think there'll be?
JOHN FREWEN:
Yeah. Look, we're all, we're all set for the kids; we've got the supply now in place; we're ready to go from the 10th. Bookings are, are filling up fast, so that's great to see. I think there'll be a really strong uptake. In the, the 12-17-year-olds we saw a remarkably quick, sort of, ramp up, so I think that we'll see the same with the, with the young kids.
JOHN FREWEN:
Now, like so many times we've spoken about this - resources. And there are a number of, a number of medical experts out there that are held up with case- close contacts, casual contacts, et cetera. Do we have enough people to administer these booster shots? Especially now that the kids are going to be rolled out next month.
JOHN FREWEN:
Yeah. So, this time around, you know, supply isn't the issue. We've got more than enough vaccines. So, the two key things we're working on now is the, the distribution of the vaccines; delivering them to where they're needed most. And then, it's having the workforce to get them in arms. You've seen the, you know, the record numbers of boosters that we've been administering, sort of, every day for the last couple of weeks.
So, there is an amazing work force out there, and I have immense respect and appreciation for all those workers - whether they're GPs, pharmacists, or the, the folks in the state clinics - for everything they've done this year. But COVID keeps throwing curve balls at us. It's Omicron now; it's Christmas, but we've got to keep going and we're all working really hard to make sure everyone can get boosted as quickly as they can.
MATT SHIRVINGTON:
That's right. Curve balls, that's an understatement. Lieutenant, thank you so much.
Contact
