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Peak advisory body Catholic Health Australia has welcomed the NSW Government’s decision to report the number of people who have received their booster shots, giving the community a clearer picture of the levels of protection.
Today CHA, which represents Catholic not-for-profit hospitals and aged care homes, said the NSW Government was heading in the right direction, but that the language around “fully vaccinated” needed to change.
CHA’s Health Policy Manager Alex Lynch said: “The NSW Government has done the right thing and is now giving us a clearer picture of how we are tracking as a community when it comes to total protection.
“Today we learn that just over a fifth of the eligible population in NSW have received their third dose and under ATAGI’s advice are fully vaccinated and have the highest level of protection from COVID-19.
“Our members would like all states and territories to report these figures and communicate clearly to their populations how far they have come and, more importantly, how far they have to go to attain total protection. We need an accurate snapshot on how we are tracking as a nation.”
Earlier this week CHA wrote to NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard, to point out that accurate reporting on the community’s current level of protection via vaccines is vital to give the public the full picture of community transmission, particularly as governments tell Australians to exercise personal responsibility for their COVID-19 safety.
In the letter, CHA CEO Pat Garcia says that the headline figure of 95% of the population being “fully vaccinated” is becoming an increasingly poor descriptor of the protection vaccines are providing our community. This figure assumes substantial protection is still present in those residents who were vaccinated first and are yet to receive a booster.
