coronavirus, COVID-19, coronavirus, hotel quarantine, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Canberra vaccine
The ACT government isn’t keeping track of how many frontline border workers have received the COVID-19 jab despite all of the country’s recent outbreaks being linked to hotel quarantine. The ACT’s fifth repatriation flight landed in Canberra on Monday, and 145 returned Australian travellers were taken to Pacific Suites on Northbourne Avenue. One passenger was hospitalised for a health issue not related to COVID-19. Health authorities said passengers on the “hub flight” from Singapore had travelled across Asia and Europe, and some 200 border workers would manage their mandatory 14 days in quarantine. But an ACT government spokeswoman said on Tuesday the government wasn’t keeping tabs on how many of the workers had received the coronavirus vaccine. “The ACT government has a record of everyone who has received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine through their patient record,” the spokeswoman said. “However, we do not record the specific occupation of each individual when they receive their vaccination. “This means we do not have readily available data on how many current workers in the quarantine hotel have received their first vaccine.” The spokeswoman said one of the reasons for that was because people could fall into multiple priority vaccination groups, like healthcare workers and quarantine workers. Infectious diseases epidemiologist Professor Darren Gray said even if the quarantine workers had been given the jab on the first day of the ACT rollout, it likely wouldn’t have had a huge effect on them. “[The Pfizer vaccine is] a two-dose vaccine and whilst the first dose does provide some immune protection, it does take several weeks for the body to build an immune response,” Professor Gray said. “It’s unlikely that an immune response would have been generated within a week anyway.” The spokeswoman said that having the right infection control measures, training and processes in place was the government’s primary focus for the ACT’s hotel quarantine program. READ MORE: Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt on Tuesday said the ACT had been allocated 5100 doses of coronavirus vaccine to get it through the next while. Canberra health authorities said that, of the 5100 doses, about 2300 were of the Pfizer vaccine, and the ACT had already planned to roll them out over the next couple of weeks. The remaining nearly 2800 doses were of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but the ACT government was yet to hear from the federal government about when they’d be delivered. It was also still figuring out the logistics of where and how the AstraZeneca vaccine would be rolled out in the ACT. Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/5W4iRw6LNH53uM23K5syYZ/6175bd12-ee69-4405-93f2-d2f6a7066ab3.jpg/r0_196_5000_3021_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg
The ACT government isn’t keeping track of how many frontline border workers have received the COVID-19 jab despite all of the country’s recent outbreaks being linked to hotel quarantine.
The ACT’s fifth repatriation flight landed in Canberra on Monday, and 145 returned Australian travellers were taken to Pacific Suites on Northbourne Avenue.
Health authorities said passengers on the “hub flight” from Singapore had travelled across Asia and Europe, and some 200 border workers would manage their mandatory 14 days in quarantine.
But an ACT government spokeswoman said on Tuesday the government wasn’t keeping tabs on how many of the workers had received the coronavirus vaccine.
“The ACT government has a record of everyone who has received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine through their patient record,” the spokeswoman said.
“However, we do not record the specific occupation of each individual when they receive their vaccination.
“This means we do not have readily available data on how many current workers in the quarantine hotel have received their first vaccine.”
The spokeswoman said one of the reasons for that was because people could fall into multiple priority vaccination groups, like healthcare workers and quarantine workers.
Infectious diseases epidemiologist Professor Darren Gray said even if the quarantine workers had been given the jab on the first day of the ACT rollout, it likely wouldn’t have had a huge effect on them.
“[The Pfizer vaccine is] a two-dose vaccine and whilst the first dose does provide some immune protection, it does take several weeks for the body to build an immune response,” Professor Gray said.
“It’s unlikely that an immune response would have been generated within a week anyway.”
The spokeswoman said that having the right infection control measures, training and processes in place was the government’s primary focus for the ACT’s hotel quarantine program.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt on Tuesday said the ACT had been allocated 5100 doses of coronavirus vaccine to get it through the next while.
Canberra health authorities said that, of the 5100 doses, about 2300 were of the Pfizer vaccine, and the ACT had already planned to roll them out over the next couple of weeks.
The remaining nearly 2800 doses were of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but the ACT government was yet to hear from the federal government about when they’d be delivered.
It was also still figuring out the logistics of where and how the AstraZeneca vaccine would be rolled out in the ACT.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
