by The Central Epidemic Command Centre urges individuals in the priority groups under the government-funded vaccination program to get vaccinations as early as possible to build protection, the governments health body pleaded on Saturday.
Victorias Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton.Credit:Eddie Jim
The latest outbreak could help the vaccine rollout. The CDC reported that vaccination spots have now been booked out for the rest of May.
Victorias Chief Health Officer, Professor Brett Sutton, does not want Australia to wait to find out what happens if, like Taiwan, it one day loses its no COVID-19 transmission status.
On Monday, he also singled out Mongolia, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, Laos and Singapore which had for months secured the same level of freedom that Australia enjoys today.
They are now all experiencing outbreaks or established community transmission. Singapore and Taiwan are now going into restrictions or lockdown to get on top of it. Why does this matter? Because we cant take being free of COVID for granted especially as variants emerge, he said on Twitter.
He said it was time for Australia to be more ambitious with its vaccination program.
Only high levels of vaccination coverage can really help to protect us – something none of these countries have yet to achieve. Singapore is now stepping up vaccination, with a million doses just in the last week. We could do the same if were willing.
But local production in Australia remains elusive as other countries in the region, including South Korea and Singapore, move closer to deals with Moderna and Pfizer.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in is expected to announce a deal to produce Moderna when he visits Washington on Friday. So far only 1 million of the countrys target of 100 million shots have been administered due to supply constraints.
Pfizers vaccine partner BioNTech last week announced it will build a huge vaccine plant in Singapore. Both are mRNA vaccines, which Australia still does not have the capacity to produce despite an undisclosed funding commitment in last weeks federal budget.
Singapore added 38 new cases of community transmission on Sunday, the highest number since it was named as the best place in the world to be during COVID-19 less than three weeks ago. It has since ordered workers to work from home, schools to go remote and hawkers to become takeaway only for a month.
While a quarter of the city-states 5.5 million people have been fully vaccinated the fastest rate in south-east Asia Singapores Health Minister, Ong Ye Kung, said on Sunday the government was considering delaying second jabs to get a wider part of the population covered with at least one shot as soon as possible, particularly those aged under 45.
One possibility is that maybe for phase two we should try our best to give as many people a good level of protection against COVID-19. That means give as many people as possible one dose of COVID-19 vaccination, Ong Ye Kung said on Sunday night.
We have an expert committee and the evidence, locally and overseas, points towards [it being] reasonable for dose two to be further apart from dose one. So instead of 21, or 28 days or three weeks or four weeks, it can possibly extend to six to eight weeks without materially affecting the efficacy of the vaccine.
