Victoria outlines vaccine rollout plans as COVID-19 ‘technically eliminated’

The first stage of the Pfizer-BioNTech rollout will vaccinate quarantine and border workers and all staff working in Victoria’s high-risk hotel quarantine scheme.

Front-line health workers, including medical staff at testing centres, aged care and disability care staff and residents are also included in the first phase.

The Pfizer vaccine is expected to be available to priority groups for vaccination from late February.

However, Mr Foley said the vaccine was yet to arrive in Australia, and the timing was in the “federal government’s hands.”

It is yet to be confirmed which public hospitals will store the Pfizers doses. Western Health services Melbourne’s rapidly growing western suburbs and has large public hospitals in Sunshine and Footscary. Monash Health oversees the Monash Medical Centre in Clayton as well as smaller hospitals in Berwick and Dandenong. Austin Health runs the Austin Hospital in Heidelberg, along with two smaller hospitals in the city’s north-east.

News of the vaccine rollout comes as Victoria recorded no new local coronavirus cases and zero in hotel quarantine. It marks four straight weeks without community transmission.

Mr Foley said on Wednesday 28 days of zero local transmission “technically equates to elimination of the virus.” But he warned the threat of the pandemic was ongoing.

“There is a long way to go before we can claim it is over,” Mr Foley said.

“We are working on the basis as soon as the vaccine is available we’ll be in a position to start that rollout.

Mr Foley said there were no plans to mandate the vaccine, but he anticipated high uptake among healthcare workers.

“The vaccine program is safe, effective and free,” he said.

“Historically we’ve seen very high rates of take-up from our health network … and we’d expect that to continue to be the case,” he said.

Monash Health medical director for infection prevention Rhonda Stuart said the health network had been preparing to become a Pfizer vaccine hub since before Christmas.

“We’ve been going through procedures to make sure we deliver the vaccine in the safest way possible and we’re all prepared for the rollout as soon as the vaccine hits our doors,” Professor Stuart said.

“We’ve had many discussions with our staff and we’re really keen to get the vaccine and we’re working with them all very closely to make sure that happens as soon as possible.”

She said the health service already had two ultra-low-temperature freezers at its public hospitals, which had capacity to store about 180,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which must be kept at minus 70 degrees.

Once the vaccine was taken out of an ultra-cold freezer it could be stored for up to five days at ordinary fridge temperature, meaning authorities will have to move quickly in administering all available doses among priority groups.

“We have freezers now at Monash waiting for the doses to arrive and we’ve got really great processes in place for distributing that vaccine to the clinics,” Professor Stuart said.

Monash Health has close to 20,000 staff, but Professor Stuart said first priority will be given to vaccinating staff who are at highest risk of getting coronavirus. She estimated about 5000 of the health service’s staff, including front-line doctors and nurses, would receive the vaccine within the first six weeks of the immunisation program.

Some doses of Pfizerwill likely be thawed and refrigerated before being picked up by medical providers, contracted by the federal government, and taken to aged care homes to vaccinate workers and residents.

Australia has bought 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine – enough to inoculate 5 million people with two jabs – and more than 53 million doses of the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which does not require ultra-cold freezers to be stored.

Phase two of the rollout, slated to begin in mid-March, will administer the AstraZeneca vaccine to the broader population. The second phase will aim to inoculate 6.1 million people, including anyone aged over 70, healthcare workers, younger adults with an underlying condition and other high-risk workers.

Efficacy trials suggest the Pfizer vaccine stops infection from the virus in 95 per cent of people. Early trials suggest AstraZeneca vaccine prevents infection in 62 per cent of cases but is highly effective in preventing serious illness and death from the virus.

Each of the coronavirus vaccines that Australia has signed on to use require two shots, delivered a specific number of weeks apart, to ensure full benefit.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines require doses to be delivered three weeks apart.

There are 21 active cases in Victoria. More than 16,000 test results were received on Tuesday.