NSW booster numbers ‘not what they need to be’ with 100,000 jabs a week left unused | lucy_carroll marywardy
NSW’s vaccination hubs can administer at least 100,000 more booster jabs a week than they are currently achieving with health officials warning that valuable staff are being left idle with the program running at half-capacity.published data showing fewer than a third of eligible adults had received their booster shot in parts of south-west Sydney, with the city’s western suburbs falling well behind parts of the north and east.
In some areas hard hit by the Omicron surge, outreach vaccination clinics have been ramped with at least ten sites mobilised across Western Sydney to deliver booster jabs to vulnerable groups. NSW Health Deputy Secretary Susan Pearce said the state’s 40 vaccination clinics could administer more than 250,000 vaccination a week, at least 100,000 more than it is currently delivering.At Royal North Shore Hospital on Thursday all seven COVID-19 patients in intensive care had not received a third dose.
“We know that to prevent severe disease associated with COVID, that booster is absolutely critical,” she said.Since the start of the Omicron outbreak, Mr Perrottet has repeatedly referred to this variant of COVID-19 as “milder” than its predecessor, Delta, using the reduced severity of illness caused by infection to justify not moving to harsher pandemic restrictions.
Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said anyone who was over the age of 65 or had a chronic underlying health condition should make urgent plans to receive a booster shot if they had not already, as well as people who come into contact with these groups.