Victoria Australia’s second-most populous state will go into a week-long lockdown as the number of “virus-exposed sites” reported by authorities rose above 150.
Kelly said they should receive COVID shots even if they have just had their flu jabs.
The advice previously has been for a two week interval between the flu and COVID shots.
As Victoria goes into a seven day lockdown amid escalating cases, the federal government pulled out all stops to finalise the vaccination of the aged care sector in the state.
There are 598 residential aged care facilities in Victoria. On Wednesday the government said 569 facilities had received a first dose (with 361 fully vaccinated with both doses).
It said the remaining 29 facilities would be prioritised.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Thursday all Victorian facilities would be done by Friday.
Australians who get the Covid vaccine could be given travel vouchers, frequent flyers points and status credits by Qantas under a new plan from the airline.
Eager to get the international border reopened, the carrier has flagged the plan this week in an effort to encourage Aussies to get the jab. Qantas is a big supporter of Australia s vaccine rollout because of what it means for public health, but also because it s the key to keeping our domestic borders open and safely restarting international travel as well, Qantas Chief Customer Officer Stephanie Tully said.
Qantas is considering perks such as frequent flyer points for Aussies who get the Covid vaccine
Information on vaccines getting better ‘almost by the day’25/05/2021|9min
The information being gathered in relation to coronavirus vaccines is getting better “almost by the day,” according to Deakin University Chair of Epidemiology Professor Catherine Bennett.
It comes amid discussions about implementing incentives for vaccination – an initiative which Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has called for.
“We’ve had three significant bits of information coming out of the analysis of UK real world data over this last fortnight,” Professor Bennett told Sky News.
“That includes very high effectiveness not just against symptomatic disease and particularly serious disease which we know about.