According to Australia’s Chief Health Officer Paul Kelly, 19 vaccinations are successful in avoiding serious sickness from the Omicron variety, but they aren’t as effective as other strains in preventing transmission and moderate illness.
According to Kelly, three vaccine doses for the omicron form are nearly as efficient as two for the delta variant in avoiding transmission and severe disease, underscoring the need of booster injections in arresting a surge of cases in Australia.
“That’s one of the reasons why we’re seeing more instances but not as many hospitalizations or other types of serious sickness,” Kelly explained. “We’re witnessing the same thing here in Australia.”
Vaccine shortages in some Australian surgeries and pharmacies are expected to be temporary as a result of the recent acceleration of the booster programme, which made people eligible five months rather than six months after their second dose, according to vaccine rollout chief Lieutenant General John Frewen. “The amount of supplies is not a worry,” he remarked.
By the end of the year, about 4 million people would have had a booster shot, up from 1.7 million before the timeframe was adjusted, according to Frewen.
He claims that more than 4.6 million dosages are currently “sitting on shelves at GPs and pharmacies, as well as in state clinics.” “In those circumstances where people have run out of supplies as a result of this increasing demand, we’re striving to send supplies to them as soon as possible.”
Daily Covid-19 instances in New South Wales, Australia’s most populated state, jumped to a record 2,213 on Friday, up from 158 a week earlier, as end-of-year celebrations spurred superspreader events in nightclubs and pubs. The number of hospitalizations is increasing, but it is still modest at 215, with 24 in intensive care.
Cases in Victoria, the country’s second-most populous state, were stable at 1,510 on Friday, with 386 hospitalised and 82 active ICU cases.
