New South Wales health officials are considering breaking with commonwealth advice by shortening the Covid vaccine booster interval to four months, amid concern about spread of the Omicron variant.
Guardian Australia understands that NSW health department officials were meeting with vaccine providers in the state on Friday and canvassing the prospect of how they would cope with an influx of people eager to be vaccinated ahead of schedule.
A source familiar with the vaccine rollout in NSW told Guardian Australia health authorities in the state were concerned about record transmission levels this week as well as a potential waning of protection, given that a large number of people in the state received AstraZeneca.
The NSW health department is also understood to be considering its own incentives to encourage more general practitioners and pharmacies to rejoin the booster rollout, after the Australian Medical Association raised concern about the Commonwealth’s decision to decrease the fees it pays providers.
Earlier this week, the AMA said the booster rollout was “already falling behind” and called for it to be sped up.
Guardian Australia contacted NSW Health for comment in relation to the potential four-month interval, and a spokesperson referred the question to the commonwealth government. The Guardian contacted the federal health department for comment.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) on Friday decided to maintain the five month interval for booster shots.
However, Atagi decided to allow flexibility for those who were one or two weeks short of the five-month period but who wanted to get it ahead of clinic closures and travel over Christmas.
Demand for booster shots grew significantly in the days after the commonwealth brought forward the booster interval from six months to five.
In Sydney, St Vincent’s Hospital has begun shifting more staff on to its vaccination clinic to cope with the surge in demand for boosters ahead of the Christmas period.
St Vincent’s spokesperson, David Faktor, told Guardian Australia the hospital’s vaccination clinic has been busier in the last few days than at any point during the vaccine rollout.
Pharmacy Guild of Australia NSW president, David Heffernan, said many pharmacists who were part of the booster rollout had all of their bookings until February snapped up in the days after the commonwealth’s five-month interval announcement on Monday.
“We’re just stretched at the moment,” Heffernan said. “Pharmacists are doing their best, they’re doing roughly the same amount as GPs.
“It is a very tired workforce and they’ve been going over and beyond trying to get these vaccines out.”
Asked about potential financial incentives for more pharmacies to join the booster rollout, Heffernan said “some pharmacies are knocking it back because there’s no business case to do it”.
Heffernan said there did not appear to be booster supply issues in Australia, but instead raised concern about deployment of the vaccine supplies from the commonwealth and pharmacies opting out of the booster rollout.
There were 2,213 new Covid-19 cases and one death announced in NSW on Friday, its highest ever daily case number of the pandemic. However intensive care presentations remain relatively low, with 24 people currently in ICUs in the state.
In response to spiralling transmission, a red alert was issued for hospitals in the state, which a NSW Health spokesperson said was done “due to increasing transmission rates with the emergence of the Omicron variant”.
Under red alert, NSW Health temporarily restricts visitors to its facilities, with exemptions granted “in some circumstances for essential patient needs and compassionate reasons, especially when supporting women in labour, providing care for children in hospital, and for palliative care”.
“NSW Health has not made this decision lightly. We must always prioritise our vulnerable patients and staff who are arguably the most vital workers needed in a pandemic,” the spokesperson said.
