Under-12s won’t receive their first Covid vaccination jab until early next year and the government has no plans to change the definition of “fully vaccinated” for older Australians to include a booster shot, the health minister says.
Children aged between five and 11 will not be able to access a vaccine until at least early 2022, Greg Hunt said on Sunday, arguing the federal government saw no reason to rush the program.
Smaller doses of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine have been recommended for under-12s meaning Australia has had to order new batches which contain the correct dosages. Those 5m doses aren’t expected to arrive until at least January, Hunt suggested.
“At this stage, to the best of my knowledge, only the United States has provided an emergency approval for children 5-11. And our medical regulator, the TGA, and the technical advisory group led by the Victorian principle vaccines adviser to the premier, Prof Allen Cheng, said they do not want to cut corners on the study and data for children,” the health minister told ABC TV’s Insiders program.
Hunt said the rollout for children was “ready to go when our regulators are convinced it’s safe and effective for children”.
A third dose of the vaccine for older Australians, six months after the second dose was administered, has been recommended to cover any “waning” in the vaccine’s effectiveness.
Australia initially rolled out third doses – or “boosters” – for people with compromised immune systems. The program was recently expanded to include those who are due for a top-up.
“So our medical advice is that booster shots are just that – they are an important booster,” Hunt said on Sunday.
“They add to the capacity of an individual to have immunity and to have a strong immune response. We’ve been one of those to start a whole-of-nation booster program, one of the first after Israel. We’ve already reached 250,000 boosters only a week into the full program … [and] we’re at 257,000 boosters at this point.”
But there are no plans to change the definition of “fully vaccinated” against Covid to include a booster shot – including for aged care workers and in other settings where vaccination is mandatory.
Will we need three doses to be considered fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in future?
— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) November 13, 2021
"Everything is always under review, but there's no plan to change that requirement at this stage," @GregHuntMP says.#Insiders #auspol pic.twitter.com/2Pxpn6WyEK
Hunt said the third vaccine was “recommended” but there would be no change to exisiting advice.
“Everything is always under review, but there’s no plan to change that requirement at this stage,” he said.
“As we’ve done throughout, we’ll continue to follow the medical advice. That’s how we’ve had one of the lowest rates of loss of life in the world, one of the highest rates of vaccination, and now one of the earliest whole-of-nation booster programs.”
While the over-16 Australian population as a whole has reached a double-dose vaccination rate of just over 80%, Indigenous Australians have not received vaccinations at the same rate, with just 55% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians having received two shots.
Hunt on Sunday dodged a question on whether it was safe to open borders while Indigenous vaccination rates remained lower than the general population.
“Well, it is important that we open these borders, and the Doherty [Institute] modelling has shown these state figures help protect everybody,” he said. “But we want every individual to come forward – Indigenous and non-Indigenous.”
Hunt also pushed for Western Australia to open its border to the rest of Australia “as soon as possible”.
WA is about to reach the 70% double-dose threshold but the premier, Mark McGowan, has previously said he won’t open the state until it reaches 90% fully vaccinated, which is not expected until 2022.
The fifth Ashes cricket Test is scheduled for Perth in January with players subjected to just five days quarantine so the match can go ahead. Hunt said all Australians should be able to travel to WA.
“I want to see not just cricketers but children reuniting with parents,” he said on Sunday. “I want the same rules for children and cancer and cardiac patients, as for cricketers, and to do that as quickly as possible.”
