Nurses leave home quarantine as border towns centre of massive vaccination effort
Queensland has widened eligibility for vaccines and sent more supplies to border towns. It had already prioritised Indigenous communities – unlike NSW, which now faces a crisis.
Staff at the mass COVID-19 vaccination centre at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre will get reinforcements as colleagues leave home quarantine. (AAP Image/Darren England)
As Australia’s vaccination rollout gathers pace, the spread of the Greater Sydney outbreak to regional NSW, Victoria and the ACT has authorities making snap decisions about who should be protected first.
The Palaszczuk Government is monitoring the unfolding situation just over the border, from Byron Bay in the east to Walgett in the west, as police seek to prevent people leaving southern hotspots.
An emergency agreement between the Berejiklian and Morrison Governments has promised more staff and supplies for Walgett, just over an hour’s drive from the Queensland border, which has a large Indigenous population and low vaccination rates. It emerged overnight that COVID-19 had struck a large number of First Nations people in western NSW, the very scenario that experts have long warned about.
Unlike NSW, Queensland prioritised at-risk Indigenous populations early. That was a key factor in Queensland Health seeking to focus on Pfizer, due to the younger age profile, and has seen advance teams travel through the Torres Strait – a boat ride from hard-hit Papua New Guinea – and, this week, Cape York.
Yet the state’s largest vaccination hubs, in south-east Queensland, have been hamstrung by the lack of nurses, who in a crisis could also be dispatched to other communities. Over the past fortnight or so, many have been stuck in home quarantine as Delta spread through families in Brisbane.
“It will help enormously once these quarantine requirements end for the Indooroopilly cluster because there are quite a few nurses in quarantine at the moment because their kids go to one of those schools,” Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said on Thursday.
The Indooroopilly cluster at one point had more than 400 health workers in home quarantine, due to links with several affected schools and other exposure sites. As of Thursday afternoon, approximately 370 were still in home quarantine.
Almost a quarter of Queenslanders aged 16 or over have been fully vaccinated, mostly by Queensland Health.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has repeatedly said this week that 70 per cent of vaccinations in Queensland are the responsibility of the Commonwealth, largely through AstraZeneca being administered by GPs and pharmacies.
