Children aged 12 and over will be added to the national vaccination rollout following updated medical advice released this morning.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has welcomed advice from the nation’s peak body advising on immunisations that 12-to-15-year-olds will be able to get the Pfizer jab.
“Bookings will open for children aged 12 to 15 from September 13,” he said.
“We have made and flagged the commencement of the ability for those aged 16-39 to be able to make those bookings and that is the next pressure on the system.”
Mr Morrison said 12-to-15-year-olds would not be factored into the vaccination targets.
“The advice from Doherty… is it is necessary to vaccinate children aged 12 to 15,” he said.
“But there’s no recommendation they should be included in that target.
“The target is about the overall level of vaccination in an adult population, which are the primary transmitters of the virus.”
Mr Morrison left the door open to Australians who were fully vaccinated travelling overseas by the end of the year.
“If we get to 80 per cent (vaccination rate) then phase C of the plan enables Australians who are vaccinated to be able to leave Australia,” he said.
“We can achieve that.
“That sounds like a really good reason to get vaccinated.”
In a statement released ahead of today’s meeting of National Cabinet, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation confirmed the Pfizer vaccine was now recommended for children between the ages of 12 and 15.
Pfizer was already recommended for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids in that age group, as well as those with other underlying medical conditions.
But the jab will now be expanded to all Australian children over the age of 12.
“ATAGI has reviewed the evidence and now supports COVID-19 vaccination in all adolescents from 12 years of age,” the statement said.
The expert group said the median age of people with COVID-19 was falling in “many countries experiencing Delta variant transmission, including in Australia” and that while serious disease in teenagers was less common than in adults, it still posed a risk.
“Overall hospitalisation rates for COVID-19 in the adolescent age group are higher than for other diseases such as influenza,” ATAGI said.
“In the USA, COVID-19 hospitalisation rates in adolescents from October 2020 to April 2021 were 2.5 to 3 times higher than that for influenza-associated hospitalisation rates from three recent influenza seasons.”
It was also anticipated the vaccinating adolescents would “contribute to a reduction in (COVID-19) transmission in the broader population”.
Myocarditis and pericarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle — is a rare side effect of the Pfizer vaccination that is more common in adults under 30s and teenagers.
It is more common in males and after the second dose — occurring in about one in 15,000 cases — but ATAGI wrote: “the vast majority of these cases have been mild and patients have recovered quickly with supportive care.”
ATAGI also flagged that Moderna, also an mRNA vaccine like Pfizer that has been approved for use in adults, was “under consideration for provisional registration by (the Therapeutic Goods Administration) for 12-to-17 year olds with a decision anticipated by early September 2021.”
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr broke rank with the national vaccination plan yesterday to announce the Territory would include kids aged 12 and over in the 70 and 80 per cent thresholds required to transition to Phases B and C of the re-opening strategy.
WA Premier Mark McGowan supported Mr Barr’s approach and said he hoped “national consensus” on the issue would be agreed today.
“I raised this at National Cabinet last Friday, the Prime Minister was not supportive of that,” Mr McGowan said.
“But I think it’s something that requires some serious thought and discussion.
“There’s a headlong rush in Sydney to just open everything up and let it rip.
“That is not my view. We have a great thing going here I don’t want us to end up like NSW.
“So I think we need to seriously look at that proposition that has now been put in place by the ACT.”
The pair are at odds with Scott Morrison, who has this week insisted that the Doherty Institute modelling underpinning the national plan did not require children under 16 to be included in the vaccination thresholds.
“What (the Doherty Institute) have consistently said to the National Cabinet… (is) that the rates of vaccination across the broader population over 16 give us the indication of the level of vaccination ready needed to be able to move to Phase B and Phase C,” Mr Morrison said.
“That does not by implication say there is no need to vaccinate children 12 to 15… these two objectives are not working against each other, I see them working completely together with each other.”
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2021-08-27 00:50:00Z
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