The press conference had been called to launch the new COVID-19 vaccination hub at the airport, opening tomorrow – part, Chief Minister Andrew Barr said, of the ACT Government’s expansion of its vaccine program. That would have been business as usual.
But over the last week, COVID-19 re-emerged across Australia, in the form of the new Delta strain, which some experts claim can be transmitted in a “fleeting moment” of 10 to 15 seconds and can hang in the air for up to 16 hours.
“We’ve got to recognise that we are in the highest risk period we’ve been in for some time, certainly this year,” Mr Barr said.
Nearly 120 locally acquired coronavirus cases were reported in NSW this week; Greater Sydney and other parts of NSW are in lockdown. Forty-one Queenslanders have COVID-19, while South Australia and Western Australia also have a handful of cases. A two-day lockdown has also been declared in the Northern Territory, after mine workers tested positive.
No cases have been detected in the ACT so far, but the local government is being cautious. Nearly 25,000 people in Canberra self-declared they had been in Sydney during the last fortnight, while 10,000 people have been ordered to stay at home. Which didn’t deter the 50 Sydneysiders who attended a Braddon hotel on Saturday night, contravening travel restrictions.
Mr Barr hoped that NSW had acted in time to prevent further spread of this “much more transmissible” variant. Over the weekend, the ACT Government made face masks mandatory; it is also stepping up sewage monitoring, and encouraging Canberrans with COVID-19 symptoms to come forward for testing.
Meanwhile, SA has closed its borders to NSW and the ACT, while travellers from those jurisdictions need an orange zone permit to enter Victoria.
“It’s a difficult and anxious time,” Mr Barr said. “You’ve got cases in five states and territories, and a lot of local action necessary. … It’s in the middle of school holidays. Everything about it is a perfect storm of potential COVID spread.”
ACT vaccinations are above average
But the Chief Minister was confident the ACT health system could handle an outbreak of COVID-19.
“The concern is that if you let an outbreak run wild, then that would override any health system. That’s why we have in place the mask mandate, why we have a range of other measures, and why we need to get more people vaccinated.”
He said vaccinations are a protection against severe disease, and will keep you out of hospital. “If you’re not vaccinated, then you run the risk of getting very sick. If you’re in an older cohort in particular, if you’re eligible for Astra-Zeneca and you’re hesitating, go and get vaccinated, please.”
The ACT was ahead of average in delivering both first and second doses of vaccines, Mr Barr said. More than 150,000 vaccinations had been administered in the ACT, around 80,000 through government clinics at Garran (Pfizer for the under-60s) and Calvary Public Hospital Bruce (AstraZeneca for senior citizens).
Vaccinations at the new airport hub
The airport hub will administer more than 1,500 Pfizer vaccinations each week, increasing to 3,000 as more doses are supplied.
The hub opens after the Commonwealth supplied more doses of the Pfizer vaccine: 3,000 doses per week, which will give the ACT an ongoing supply of more than 10,000 Pfizer doses per week during July, Mr Barr said last week.
The centre – open seven days a week, from 8am to 3.30pm – is already booked out until 29 July, but taking bookings beyond then.
“As a community, we’re only going to be safe when we reach very high levels of vaccination, 80 or 90%,” said Stephen Byron, managing director of the Capital Airport Group.
Vaccinations protected businesses too, giving them the assurance they would remain open and employ staff.
As the Commonwealth provided more vaccines, the ACT Government and its partners in GP networks and its own clinics would “get as many people vaccinated as soon as possible”, Mr Barr said.
Demand outstrips supply
Nevertheless, Mr Barr seemed frustrated it was taking so long to vaccinate Australians. “No-one’s happy when demand outstrips supply,” he said.
Although “pleased” to have the extra doses to open the clinic, and ‘supply horizons’ to plan how to vaccinate more people, he believed more people should have been vaccinated in time for winter – when there was more risk of COVID-19 spreading.
Earlier this year, the Federal Government said everyone would be fully vaccinated by October – which seems increasingly improbable. Australia found it difficult to secure Pfizer or AstraZeneca, while the latter vaccine has been scrapped for the under-60s, due to concerns about blood clots. Now the Prime Minister says that every eligible Australian will have their first dose by the end of the year.
Labor is making political hay with this delay; opposition leader Anthony Albanese said the Morrison Government has failed to fix the rollout or build national quarantine. “Australians are paying the price with longer lockdowns and further restrictions,” Mr Albanese said.
Meanwhile, data published this weekend shows Australia ranks last in the OECD for the share of people who are fully vaccinated, Labor MP Dr Andrew Leigh posted on Facebook.
Restrictions in the ACT
Having made face masks mandatory yesterday, the ACT Government is prepared to implement further restrictions if necessary. If COVID-19 is transmitted within the community, the government’s response would be citywide, Mr Barr said.
Lockdown would depend on the circumstances. If someone was in isolation when they became positive, there would be no need for lockdown. “But if they’ve been out and into a hundred different venues, and there were potentially tens of thousands of people exposed, then it’s a different story.”
Face masks were a precautionary measure, Mr Barr said – an effective way to reduce the risk of aerosol transmission of the virus should it be present in the community.
“Now is the time to be vigilant and to put in place a range of risk-based measures,” he said.
On Sunday, the ACT Government made face masks compulsory on public transport, supermarkets, shopping centres and other indoor “risky areas” across Canberra – a first for the ACT.
The NSW Government made face masks mandatory in Sydney Local Government Areas last week, and in regional NSW on Saturday. As the ACT sits within regional NSW, yesterday’s announcement brings it in line with neighbouring towns like Queanbeyan.
“I’d much rather do this ahead of the virus finding its way into the ACT than having to do it in a rushed way once the virus is amongst the community,” Mr Barr said.
“If this helps prevent the rapid spread of the virus in the ACT, it will be a very effective public health measure. If it doesn’t, then we’ve all had the inconvenience of wearing a mask for a few weeks. The balance of the two is pretty clear where we should go, and that’s why we’ve done what we’ve done.”
The mask policy focused on the highest risk environments, Mr Barr said: public transport, shopping centres, supermarkets, places where people came into contact with strangers from whom they could not physically distance, and where staff engaged with potentially hundreds or thousands of people in a day.
Masks are not mandatory in offices, which the government considers lower risk. Some people were concerned about COVID or other viruses transmitting through air conditioning; Mr Barr suggested that they could wear masks if they were worried.
If circumstances changed, the government will adjust public health directions and health settings accordingly. “And that would potentially extend beyond just mask wearing,” Mr Barr said.
In an irritating repeat of last year’s panic buying, some Canberrans have stampeded shops to buy toilet paper and face masks. Panic buying was unnecessary, Mr Barr said; masks were easily obtainable from supermarkets, chemists, department and hardware stores, and fashion outlets.
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