The ACT's Health Minister is considering asking the Commonwealth to do a second round of Covid vaccinations at Canberra aged care facilities, in an attempt to ensure new residents and the 367 who missed out in the first round get the chance to take the jab.
According to federal government figures, the ACT has had the best rollout of the vaccine in aged care facilities, with just seven residents waiting for a second dose at one facility.
All other facilities have been given both doses of the vaccine, but some residents elected not to get immunised or were left out due to illness or other factors.
But, as was the case in all facilities across the country, staff were only offered Covid vaccines during the in-reach program in the ACT if there were excess doses after residents got inoculated.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith on Wednesday acknowledged a proportion of the ACT's aged care residents were still unvaccinated against COVID-19, despite the strong rollout effort.
Data that came out of Senate estimates showed 17 per cent of residents were yet to be vaccinated.
"We might have a conversation with the Commonwealth about doing another in-reach program to residential aged care in the ACT," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"It is important to understand that people do need to consent to vaccination.
"So, if one in five residents in residential aged care didn't consent or didn't want to be vaccinated when that first in-reach went through, that's what's probably contributing to that [17 per cent]."
The minister said it could have been the case that new people had moved in to residential aged care facilities in Canberra since the in-reach program had been rolled out.
She said residents may have also changed their minds about Covid vaccines since the first round.
"We'll continue to work with the Commonwealth to understand how they are continuing those in-reach programs to reach new people," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"That's something that we've actually discussed previously at health ministers' meetings.
"It's really important that the Commonwealth keep going back to residential aged care facilities and ensure that as many residents are vaccinated as possible."
Health officials said during Senate Estimates on Wednesday that 50 roving teams had been deployed in Victoria to go to aged care homes and offer residents and staff another chance at getting a Covid vaccine.
Ms Stephen-Smith said she would like the potential second in-reach program to target staff as well as residents, noting "it's not feasible to vaccinate all staff at the same time given a number may experience short-lived flu like symptoms requiring time off work".
Council on the Ageing's chief executive Ian Yates said that was partly why the initial plan to vaccinate staff during the in-reach program had been abandoned.
He said it was inevitable that, during the in-reach program, there were days when consent couldn't be obtained for some residents.
"If they were coming back with in-reach, and the ACT is not that big, then I would have thought making it available to staff is a good idea," Mr Yates said.
