Less than half of aged care residents over 75 years old are up to date with their covid vaccinations. And official data shows only a fifth of older Australians in the community have received a booster in the past six months. Health experts say the low vaccination rates are concerning ahead of winter.
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TVTranscript
00:00Well, this isn't the first time that some concerns have been raised about COVID-19 vaccination
00:07or booster rates in aged care facilities in particular. So last month, the Aged Care Quality
00:13and Safety Commissioner issued a clinical alert in which the Commission's Chief Clinical
00:18Advisor basically raised some concerns about what she described as persistently low rates
00:23of COVID vaccination rates in aged care. And that was followed up a couple of weeks ago
00:28by a letter from the Commissioner and Australia's Chief Medical Officer to aged care providers,
00:34essentially saying that it was crucial that aged care vaccination rates, both against COVID-19
00:40and influenza, increased, particularly as we head into winter and we know that there's an increase
00:46in respiratory infections. The data now suggests about 45% of aged care residents over the age of 75
00:52are up to date with their boosters, their COVID boosters, which is, experts say, still pretty
00:58well below where we'd want to be.
01:00And aged care residents are particularly vulnerable. Have we seen outbreaks in aged care facilities?
01:06Yeah, look, the risk of COVID has changed obviously quite a bit in the last few years
01:11and is less than what it was perhaps in the peak of the pandemic. But there's still COVID out there
01:18and it's still a particular risk to older people and to aged care residents in particular. We saw a lot
01:23of outbreaks in aged care facilities during the pandemic and we're still seeing some. So the latest
01:27data suggests there's 70 current outbreaks. That's as of, I think, April 10. That's way down on where we were
01:36in the middle of the pandemic, but there's still a lot of spread. And also in the community as well.
01:42So last year, about 3,800 Australians died from COVID. The vast majority of those people were over
01:48the age of 70. There's still people being hospitalised with COVID and getting severe illness.
01:53And as I said, because age is the key risk factor, it's mostly amongst that 70, 75 plus age group.
02:00And that's why they recommended those regular boosters.
02:02So regular boosters, that is the recommendation for older Australians in the broader community,
02:09isn't it?
02:09Yeah, the recommendation is all Australians over the age of 75 are recommended to get a COVID booster
02:16every six months. For Australians aged 64 to 75, the recommendation is every 12 months,
02:23but they are eligible every six months. And that's basically a kind of risk benefit assessment
02:29that they can do with their own health care provider. And then for Australians in that kind
02:34of 18 to 65 bracket who are otherwise well, they're not explicitly recommended to get a
02:39COVID booster, but they are eligible to get one every 12 months. And if they're immunocompromised,
02:44they are recommended to get a 12 monthly one as well.
02:47Right. So what needs to be done then to encourage people to get those boosters?
02:52Look, I think the experts I spoke to said it's really about public health messaging.
02:56You know, we throughout the pandemic, it was we had a lot of messages around who needed
03:00to get vaccinated and when and the importance of vaccination. And that's fallen away, obviously,
03:05in the last kind of 12 months, 24 months. And so I think what they're saying is it's important
03:10that people are still aware that COVID is in the community, that it still presents a serious
03:14risk, particularly to older Australians and people in aged care facilities. And it's important
03:18that they're boosted or protected against COVID-19. For some, it might be an access issue.
03:24Sometimes people are not aware of where they can get a COVID booster. They are free. They're
03:28available with a lot of pharmacies and GPs. And in aged care facilities, the government
03:33funds GPs and pharmacists to actually administer COVID vaccines as well.