After the States hit back at Commonwealth claims they had mismanaged their vaccination programs, it emerged only half of vulnerable residents of institutions had been vaccinated under the program run by the Morrison Government.

The Commonwealth is responsible for ensuring 190,000 aged care and disability care residents, and a further 318,000 staff, are vaccinated as part of phase 1a of the national roll-out strategy. By Tuesday, it had only vaccinated 99,000 residents, well behind schedule, and now does not have a formal end date for the program.

The Morrison Government had said it would take only weeks to vaccinate all aged care residents and staff, however it will now take months, with jabs for staff the most delayed. It has started phase 1b without finishing 1a while making public commitments to have the most vulnerable vaccinated by mid-year.

This comes as aged care and disability services continue to be the first facilities to be locked down in Queensland whenever there is a case of COVID-19 in the community.

The Commonwealth is now talking to the private sector about how it might deliver the rest of phase 1a, issuing two separate tenders for a response by the end of April. It expects to do the paperwork quickly in order for the vaccinations to be done “by late May 2021”.

Next week, the Department of Health has asked as many aged care providers as possible to take part in crisis talks with potential contractors. InQueensland has seen documents that show the department wants to resolve “how onsite vaccination can be best supported (and) any changes that might be need to made to the Request for Tender requirements to make it easier for providers to participate”.

Contractors bidding for the work would be required to “scale or adapt the delivery of services as required to respond to any challenges to the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout and the provision of the Services (including the availability and supply of the vaccine, State or Territory lockdown or outbreaks of COVID-19 at vaccination sites”.

Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young today said the fact that only 56 of 186 aged care facilities in Brisbane had started vaccinations was not enough to keep them safe.

Even with the Brisbane lockdown being lifted at midday, restrictions will remain in place across Queensland for two weeks.

Young said having to stop people from seeing loved ones in aged care was her biggest regret but she could not risk a single asymptomatic visitor breaching the defences.

“They can infect nearly all those residents and we can see very high death rates,” Young said.

Her comments came as Deputy Premier Steven Miles also criticised the uncertainty of the Commonwealth supply of vaccines for the States to deliver. He said Queensland had less than three days supply of the Pfizer vaccine and 12 days of the AstraZeneca vaccine to satisfy current requirements.

While federal Health Minister Greg Hunt insists the vaccination effort is ramping up, a shortage of AstraZeneca vaccines, changing priorities, some providers taking a more cautious approach to vaccinations and even deliveries being disrupted by flooding have hampered the national rollout.

Aged care providers, health stakeholders, and workforce groups have also questioned whether the Morrison Government’s original timeframe was unrealistic for the amount of work required.

The delays have been compounded by GPs, who sometimes do outreach with facilities, being unable to guarantee they will have vaccines available. This has seen GPs – expected to deliver the bulk of 1b vaccinations – either stop taking appointments or suddenly postpone them, adding to the community angst over the pandemic.

The Commonwealth had already contracted Healthcare Australia and Aspen Medical to provide aged care vaccinations, supporting by local Primary Health Networks. The new tenders are for additional work.