While more than 30 per cent of eligible Australians are yet to have their third COVID-19 shot, the elderly and vulnerable will from today begin receiving a second booster ahead of a predicted winter infection surge.
Australians aged over 60, Indigenous Australians aged over 50, those in aged and disability care residences, and people who are immunocompromised will be among the groups able to receive their fourth dose as part of the federal health department’s Operation COVID Shield.
While the Federal Government says it is “critical” that every resident is offered the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 booster dose, on the ground, families and residents claim facilities are not equipped to take responsibility for the third dose's delivery. BIANCA ROBERTS explains
Booster COVID-19 doses will be mandatory for aged care workers across the country under new vaccine advice. Boosters are recommended three months after a second vaccine.
Queensland deputy premier Steven Miles has called out PM Scott Morrison for not ensuring the aged care sector had received third doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. "There is no explanation for why so many people in aged care are double vaccinated but not boosted when the Prime Minister said they would be," Miles said.
Catholic Health Australia is calling on Health Minister Greg Hunt to step up and immediately change Australia’s official definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ from two doses to three.
Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck yesterday told a parliamentary committee that while 89 per cent of aged care residents have had two vaccine doses, at present only 66 per cent have had their third, or booster, dose.
To continue to protect senior Australians living in aged care facilities and the community, all aged care workers are being strongly encouraged by the Federal Deapartment of Health to get a booster dose as soon as they are eligible – three months after their second dose.
Influencing people to optimise health has never been more important than right now. Pandemic choices are life, illness, and death decisions. But more than that, they’re choices we all make on behalf of those we love, and they can have extreme consequences for the vulnerable in our communities.
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