Key points
- Premier Daniel Andrews will push the federal government for fourth-dose coronavirus vaccines for all healthcare workers employed in hospitals across the state.
- There are no plans to mandate a fourth dose. The premier’s aim is to ensure a second booster is available to healthcare workers once immunity wanes from their third dose.
Premier Daniel Andrews will push the federal government for all healthcare workers in hospitals across Victoria to get a fourth dose of coronavirus vaccine, amid concerns over waning immunity.
He revealed his intention to approach the Commonwealth over the second booster shots on Monday, saying hospital chiefs had raised it as a “real priority” following a recent spate of COVID-19 outbreaks seeded by staff bringing the virus into work.
Daniel Andrews visits Maroondah Hospital on Monday.Credit:NCA NewsWire
“The CEO of Barwon Health, a nurse herself, made it very clear to me that a number of their COVID outbreaks in their hospital had been via staff bringing the virus in unknowingly and [despite] following all the right protocols,” he said.
“Some of their immunity is waning, so getting them fourth jabs as fast as possible is very important to help keep COVID out of the hospital. That’ll be something that I’ll be raising with the Commonwealth as soon as I can.”
There are no plans to mandate a fourth dose for healthcare workers in Victoria. However, it is mandatory for workers in healthcare, aged care, disability, emergency services, correctional facilities, quarantine accommodation and food processing and distribution to be “up to date” with their vaccination doses.
At present, this means they require a third dose to work on site and must have it within a set time frame once they are eligible.
Experts say boosters have been critical in reducing serious illness and fighting spread of the virus, with mounting evidence that the third dose provides ongoing protection, particularly against the vaccine-evasive Omicron variant.
Victoria’s front-line healthcare workers were among the first to be immunised against coronavirus and their third-dose boosters were fast-tracked and mandated during the Omicron wave.
“When you’re the very first cab off the rank getting vaccinated … you’re the first ones to become eligible, from an immunity waning point of view, for the fourth dose,” Andrews said.
“So we are going to do something about it … and try to make sure that all of our staff have got access to a fourth dose as quickly as possible.”
Andrews will urge the nation’s chief vaccine advisers to consider including healthcare workers in the cohort eligible for a fourth dose and request vaccine supply from Canberra.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation presently recommends a fourth dose only for Australians aged over 65 and those at increased risk of severe illness, including young people with underlying conditions. The fourth dose can be given four months after the booster.
People aged 64 and younger who do not have underlying risk factors are not eligible for a winter booster.
Asked whether a fourth dose could be mandated for healthcare workers in the future, Andrews pointed to the state’s pandemic legislation, indicating the responsibility for key health decisions now lies with Health Minister Martin Foley.
Under new pandemic-specific legislation, Foley makes public health orders following regular pandemic briefings and expert advice from Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton and his team.
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