Victoria Covid update: vaccines opened to over 16s as 50 new cases recorded

Victoria will open up its state-run Covid vaccination program to allow anyone over the age of 16 to book an appointment from Wednesday as the state recorded 50 new cases of community transmission.

The change means anyone aged 18-59 will be able to access either Pfizer or AstraZeneca, while 16- and 17-yearolds will be able to receive a Pfizer shot.

Those over 60 will still have access to AstraZeneca only.

The state’s premier,Daniel Andrews, announced the change after Victoria was able to obtain supply of Pfizer from the Polish doses secured by the federal government.

There will be 830,000 new appointments made available over the next four weeks from Wednesday, with 450,000 of those appointments for Pfizer.

People will be given the option at the appointment for AstraZeneca or Pfizer if there is supply of the latter, but 16 and 17-year-olds will not be able to get AstraZeneca.

After Andrews made the announcement, the Victorian Covid vaccine booking system reported delays due to high demands with people trying to access the website.

Andrews said there were 1.2 million people in the 16-39 demographic, and acknowledged not everyone in that age bracket would be able to get a booking initially. He said people taking up these bookings would help Victoria reach its 80% vaccination target.

“The long and the short of this is get online, ring the phone number tomorrow, book an appointment and turn up when the time comes over these next four weeks,” he said. “Play your part in that race to 80% – where lockdowns are no longer something we need to do, where we are all much more free to do things we want to be doing, and of course we can resume our economic recovery in earnest.”

As of Monday, there were 4.4m doses administered in Victoria, with 51.2% of the over 16 population having their first dose, and 30.1% having two doses. Victoria is aiming to administer 1 million doses in state-run clinics over the next month, and Andrews said with the extra appointments Victoria would probably exceed it.

The premier said 15,000 bookings had been cancelled in the week since the prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced plans to open up the program to younger people from 30 August. The state’s Covid commander, Jeroen Weimar, stressed anyone in that demographic who had already booked at a state clinic for AstraZeneca in the next few weeks should keep their appointment, and would be given the option for Pfizer if they so chose.

The push for younger people to get vaccinated comes as Andrews revealed that, of the 522 active cases in Victoria, 113 are under nine, 101 are between 10 and 19, and 92 are between 20 and 29.

“So I think that makes the point beyond any doubt that this is relevant to all age groups, and we have people in hospital from all age groups and we have people testing positive from all age groups,” he said. “So this is very much everybody’s business, if that were ever in doubt.”

Of the 50 new local cases in Victoria reported on Tuesday, seven are linked to the Shepparton cluster, six are associated with the childcare centre in Broadmeadows, 12 are associated with the Newport Altona North and Wyndham outbreak areas, six are day 13 tests from the Hobsons Bay cluster, four are associated with the Royal Melbourne outbreak, two are existing primary close contacts with the Royal Children’s Hospital ophthalmologist, and three are known contacts of earlier household cases.

Of the 10 unlinked cases, Weimar said contact tracers had not made epidemiological links yet but had been able to determine that four are associated with the Altona outbreak, three with the Carlton and Fitzroy North area, two are linked to Thomastown and one is linked to Southbank.

Weimar said officials had a “very firm grip” on the Shepparton outbreak, which now has 68 active cases. It has been genomically linked to the Glenroy outbreak, and he said contact tracers were now looking for the direct links between cases.

Only 11 of the 50 cases were isolating during their infectious period, but Weimar expressed optimism that number would improve in the next few days.

Of the 522 active cases in Victoria, 34 people are in hospital, nine in intensive care, and seven on a ventilator. Twenty-three of the 34 in hospital are under 40, including one infant.

There are currently 16,612 primary close contacts and 14,440 secondary close contacts isolating.

Weimar said the area of most concern is the Altona North, Newport and Wyndham outbreak due to “quite a large scatter field of a number of exposure sites”.

“We continue to put more focus on those areas and we will continue to work, but remember we are still seeing positive cases in many other suburbs across Melbourne,” he said. “We will do a lot more work over the coming days,” he said.

There are still about 30 mystery cases in total in the state.

The premier said getting to Covid zero in Victoria would be incredibly difficult while New South Wales still has high case numbers, but it was achievable to have low case numbers.

“NSW sets the tone for all of us. Cases up there, they are not just NSW cases, they are, in fact, Australian cases.”

Andrews said it would be too early to open up on today’s case numbers but could not say what decision would be made on 2 September, when lockdown is currently slated to end.

“It will all be based on how many cases we have and the circumstances behind each of those cases,” he said.

“When I say I believe we will have options that Sydney won’t have, we’re not bragging or boasting, not critical of anyone. That is just a fact. That is what we are working towards. Only time will tell whether we do.”