Two in five NSW residents aged 70 and over have not received a single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, as GPs warn the timing of the change to AstraZeneca eligibility means it is unlikely NSW will experience a boost in vaccination numbers amid Sydney’s outbreak.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was “relieved” Monday’s national cabinet meeting confirmed COVID-19 vaccines would be distributed based on population size after the federal government provided states and territories with an outline of how many vaccines to expect this year.
Sydneysiders have been directed to wear masks on public transport and in some local council areas.Credit:James Brickwood
There were two new cases reported in NSW on Monday, both close contacts of known cases in the Bondi cluster and already in isolation. The woman in her 50s from the northern suburbs and man in his 30s from the eastern suburbs brought the cluster to 11. Ms Berejiklian said it was likely the city’s mask rules would be extended beyond Wednesday.
“Whilst this isn’t a bad outcome, our level of concern is still there,” she said of the new cases.
The cluster has involved three key transmission events: at Westfield Bondi Junction on the weekend of June 12 and 13, at Vaucluse’s Belle Cafe on the same weekend and at the Tempe Salvos store, where one case worked, last week.
The list of exposure sites in Sydney grew on Monday, with advice for Tempe Salvos updated. Anyone who was at the store on Thursday or Saturday must immediately get tested and self-isolate for 14 days.
Fresh Nails in Bondi Junction was also added to the close contact list on Monday evening, with anyone who visited on Friday told to get tested and isolate for 14 days.
Inner west and north-west Sydney bus routes and a Baulkham Hills service station were also added to the list, as was a CBD ANZ branch and Chemist Warehouse store.
Advice for three cafes in Vaucluse – Belle Cafe, Rocco’s and Washoku Vaucluse – was updated to require people to isolate for 14 days and get tested if they visited on a number of dates between June 11 and June 15.
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant urged Sydneysiders to regularly check NSW Health’s list of exposure venues, as tweaks to times and locations had been made over the past few days.
A hearing of the Disability royal commission scheduled to take place this week in Brisbane was postponed after employees at its Sydney CBD office were directed to get a test following the attendance of a positive COVID-19 case on another floor of their building.
“Obviously it’s impossible to know who was in lifts when people are moving between a set of floors,” Dr Chant said of the possible exposure.
Majority of eligible people in NSW not vaccinated
States and territories were given an outline of how many vaccines to expect over the rest of the year during an emergency national cabinet meeting on Monday.
To date, more than 6.59 million vaccines have been administered across the country, including 1.9 million in NSW.
The figure means the majority of eligible people in NSW have not been vaccinated. Only 43 per cent of people aged over 50 and 61 per cent of over-70s in NSW have received at least one dose, compared to 48 per cent of over-50s and 65 per cent of over-70s nationally.
Despite the change in expert vaccination advice, which raised the age of AstraZeneca usage to 60 and over last week, Vaccine Operations Centre head Commodore Eric Young said about 98 per cent of Australians due to have a second dose of either the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines were returning for their shot.
“If you are over 60, do not delay: the benefit far outweighs the risk of AstraZeneca,” Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said, and also urged people who had received a dose of the vaccine to have their second. “The risk of this very rare side effect is extremely rare, 1.5 per million in a second dose. This is far outweighed by the risk posed by COVID at any age.”
But Royal Australian College of GPs NSW/ACT chair Dr Charlotte Hespe said while it was good to see people return for their second dose, the updated advice had been a “kick in the guts” for GPs who had lined up AstraZeneca appointments for people in their 50s.
Dr Hespe said the new advice meant it was unlikely NSW’s vaccination rates would experience the boost seen when Melbourne had a spate of local cases earlier this month.
“It’s very unfortunate timing and it’s a real shame we don’t have Pfizer ready and raring to go,” she said.
While NSW Health administered a record number of COVID-19 vaccines last week, doses administered by GPs and Commonwealth respiratory clinics declined for the second week in a row.
Australia’s weekly Pfizer deliveries have dipped to just under 300,000 per week but Commodore Young said the 2.8 million doses due to arrive in July would mean an increase to state allocations.
NSW state-run vaccination hubs will receive an additional 50,000 Pfizer doses split over the next three weeks, he said.
There were 25,252 tests reported in NSW to 8pm on Sunday, a slight increase from 24,468 on Saturday.
Mary Ward is a health reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.
Rachel Clun is a federal political reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, covering health.