News

COVID-19 response update for General Practitioners

Published 30 July 2021

 

ATAGI update

On 16 June 2021, ATAGI reviewed their advice and advised that Comirnaty (Pfizer) is the preferred vaccine for people under the age of 60 years except in circumstances where the benefit is likely to outweigh risk and where informed consent has been obtained.

As part of Australia’s Vaccine and Treatment Strategy, the Australian Government has purchased 20 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, and has the option to purchase more doses. The vaccine will be manufactured overseas.

COVID-19 Response Updates for General Practitioners

The Australian Government holds regular COVID-19 Response Updates for General Practitioners. Here is the information from the webinar held on 8 July. 

GPs delivering the Pfizer vaccine - Pfizer vaccine being administered through 500 general practices around Australia, and more than a third of those practices are in rural areas in the country. Over the next few weeks we’ll have another 1,300 practices which will start administering the Pfizer vaccine, and then over the next few months this will rollout to involve many of the general practices involved in our vaccine rollout.

National Cabinet transition - moving COVID-19 response from current pre-vaccination where focus is on continued suppression of outbreaks of COVID-19, to post-vaccination settings where we’ll be focused on: 

  • the prevention of serious illness,
  • on hospitalisations and on fatalities from COVID-19, and
  • the continuing public health measures.

Reducing international arrivals - The National Cabinet agreed to temporarily reduce the current international passenger arrival caps by 50 per cent, and this is to manage the pressure on quarantine facilities which has been due to the increased risks posed by the Delta strain of COVID-19.

Residential aged care vaccinations - People working in residential aged care facilities are eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine no matter what age they are. If you’re involved in the Pfizer vaccine rollout, please prioritise: 

  • health care workers,
  • aged care workers, and
  • disability care workers.

Flu vaccine gap - Continue to encourage patients to receive the flu vaccine. The gap between receiving a COVID-19 and a flu vaccine is now seven days based on the advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI).

Information to be provided soon - patient handouts on the current policy settings, including

  • who is eligible,
  • which vaccine is applied to each group preferentially as part of the program, and
  • the limited number of situations in which a Pfizer vaccine can be offered for someone 60 years and over, including
    • the limited number of contraindications listed in the ATAGI advice,
    • severe adverse event after the first dose of AstraZeneca, or
    • small and particular cohorts such as residential aged care workers or people in remote communities.

Here is the information from the webinar held on 15 July.

Vaccine hesitancy - High level among elderly patients. Doctors are finding that if the advising doctor has been vaccinated, it encourages the patient to have the vaccine themselves. 

Potential Pfizer side effects - could include myocarditis and anaphylaxis

If you wish to join the next Australian Government COVID-19 response update for General Practitioners webinar, please see more information here. The next webinars are held on 22 and 29 July.