Focus shifts as booster supply rises

MORE than a million Covid-19 vaccine booster shots will be available to Queenslanders before Christmas, as new data reveals there are so far no patients in intensive care units with the Omicron strain in Australia.

It comes ahead of an emergency national cabinet meeting, where Scott Morrison will urge a shift from “mandates to personal responsibility”.

It follows leaked advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee urging the consideration of a return to mask mandates, working from home and booster shots to deal with the milder, but more rapidly spreading, Omicron variant.

Federal health department data on Tuesday showed there were 622,084 Pfizer and 140,180 Moderna booster shots available in Queensland. Deliveries expected this week will see those supplies increased with an additional 256,500 Pfizer shots and 70,200 Moderna.

About 65 per cent of vaccine doses delivered in the week leading to December 19 came from commonwealth facilities, compared with 34 per cent in state facilities and 1 per cent in aged care.

The data shows there are 3.15 million Australians eligible for a booster dose under the current guidelines, with 1.6 million people having taken up a third jab.

The Prime Minister said on Tuesday any decisions on further reducing the gap between doses would be left to the medical advisory panel on immunisation, ATAGI.

“Now people should go and get boosters, he said. “We know that booster shots significantly assist in protecting people against Omicron.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 37 Omicron cases in hospital nationally, no deaths and no cases in intensive care.

Mr Morrison said he was taking Omicron seriously and that there would need to be changes to how the virus was managed.