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Katie Woolf spoke with NT Health Deputy Chief Executive Michelle McKay · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But joining us on the line right now is the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Let me just make sure I've got this line up.
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  Speaker 1: It is a Northern Territory Health Deputy Chief Executive, Michelle McKay.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Michelle.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie.
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  Speaker 1: Great to have you on the show. Michelle. Where are
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  Speaker 1: we at with the COVID nineteen vaccine roll out in
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  Speaker 1: the territory at the moment?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So I've got some numbers for you that I
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  Speaker 2: thought you might be interested to know. So this information
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  Speaker 2: is as at the end of Tuesday this week I
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  Speaker 2: come as recent comprehensive information we've got. So we're over
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  Speaker 2: thirty thousand doses have been given in the territory now,
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  Speaker 2: twenty thousand of those by the Northern Territory Government program
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  Speaker 2: and the balance ten thousand by our general practitioners, our
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  Speaker 2: art chose sector and by the Commonwealth who's been vaccinating
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  Speaker 2: our vulnerable people in residential aged care facilities. I thought
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  Speaker 2: you might be interested that well over two thirds of
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  Speaker 2: people living in residential aged care facilities are fully vaccinated
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  Speaker 2: now excellent, which is good, and in fact, across the
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  Speaker 2: whole territory we're over we're approaching eight thousand people who
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  Speaker 2: are fully vaccinating, meaning they've had two doses. So we're
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  Speaker 2: pleased about that. I think what we'd really like to
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  Speaker 2: share with your listeners today is people will know that
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  Speaker 2: after the recalibration of the programs with that changed advice
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  Speaker 2: based on age, that we talked about opening up more
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  Speaker 2: access points for people. So where we are now is
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  Speaker 2: that within Darwin and Alice Springs, people can go on
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  Speaker 2: to the NTI Coronavirus website and if you're eligible to
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  Speaker 2: be vaccinated now you can book in your appointment either
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  Speaker 2: in a participating GP practice or in one of the
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  Speaker 2: end he health clinic. So I think that's important for
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  Speaker 2: people that we can go through who are the group?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I am keen to do that because we
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  Speaker 1: have had quite a few people get in contact and
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  Speaker 1: say they're not sure if they're eligible at the moment
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  Speaker 1: or when their time is going to come and they're
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  Speaker 1: going to be eligible to receive the vaccine. I know
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  Speaker 1: a lot of our seniors have been really good about
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  Speaker 1: this in terms of finding out when they're eligible, but
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  Speaker 1: maybe some of us younger ones aren't as onto it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's true. So perhaps if I just
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  Speaker 2: go through quite simply who is eligible now, so any
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  Speaker 2: adult who's over the age of fifty, any adult at
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  Speaker 2: all who has an underlying medical condition, so irrespective of age, yep.
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  Speaker 2: And of course those high priority groups that we've talked
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  Speaker 2: about a lot, healthcare workers, whether that's in a GP
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  Speaker 2: practice or a private physiotherapist or a pharmacist, healthcare workers,
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  Speaker 2: aged care and disability workers, our emergency and fire service workers,
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  Speaker 2: as well as quarantine workers of course and now quarantine
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  Speaker 2: workers family members. So it's actually quite a large cohort
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  Speaker 2: are now eligible, meaning that they can go online and
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  Speaker 2: source their appointment.
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  Speaker 1: And Michelle, out of the thirty thousand that have been vaccinated, now,
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  Speaker 1: is that number ash where you'd hope that you'd be
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  Speaker 1: at at this point in time.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, So it's been a you know, it has been
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  Speaker 2: an unusual role out in that at the start we
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  Speaker 2: were quite constrained, you might recall, by the amount of
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  Speaker 2: vaccination doses that we had, and we had to be
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  Speaker 2: purposely very targeted about the high risk individuals, and we
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  Speaker 2: did those Phase one A people early. We then had
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  Speaker 2: the targeting advice that sort of caused thought to having
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  Speaker 2: a bit of a pause and work out how we
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  Speaker 2: were going to recalibrate the program based on that advice,
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  Speaker 2: and now we're at a point where we've got those
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  Speaker 2: changes in place and where we're progressing forward. There still
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  Speaker 2: are some constraints about supply into the future. There you
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  Speaker 2: will get supply at various times. But the message is
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  Speaker 2: for people, if you're in an eligible group, book your appointment,
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  Speaker 2: have your first JAB and the more people that we
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  Speaker 2: can get vaccinated, of course, the better.
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  Speaker 1: Michelle. How long do you think it will take before
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  Speaker 1: we go to the next stage vaccinating those under fifty.
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  Speaker 2: It's a little bit hard to say with any sort
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  Speaker 2: of app So this is people who are under fifty
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  Speaker 2: who don't fit into any of those categories that I said.
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  Speaker 2: I'd like to think perhaps by the middle of the
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  Speaker 2: year we should have some incoming favor allocations for that group,
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  Speaker 2: but it is a bit of a moving feast, and
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  Speaker 2: so it's hard to be too precise. But I think
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  Speaker 2: the strong message at the moment is there's lots of
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  Speaker 2: Territorians who are indeed eligible right now, and the more
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  Speaker 2: people that have their vaccination, it provides a protection for
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  Speaker 2: all of us.
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  Speaker 1: Michelle, do you reckon that there's people out there that
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  Speaker 1: don't realize they're eligible at the moment, or do you
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  Speaker 1: reckon that there's some people who are worried about getting it.
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  Speaker 2: Look, I think I think there's probably both of those, Katie,
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  Speaker 2: in terms of people knowing whether they're eligible or indeed
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  Speaker 2: how to access an appointment to get a vaccination. We're
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  Speaker 2: certainly putting information out on social media with the links
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  Speaker 2: that you can go to, and that provides ability to
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  Speaker 2: go through into those eligible sorry participating GP practices and
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  Speaker 2: respiratory clinics as well as the Northern Territory government clinics.
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  Speaker 2: We're ramping up that communication, if you like, and we'll
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  Speaker 2: see some information hopefully in the paper on the weekend
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  Speaker 2: for example, so the people are really aware of that.
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  Speaker 2: We do know that there's still, of course, people who
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  Speaker 2: are hesitant about getting the vaccination. That remains the case,
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  Speaker 2: and we continue to encourage those people to talk to
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  Speaker 2: their healthcare provider. Because we've now got many many people
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  Speaker 2: thirty thousand nearly in the territory alone who've had our
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  Speaker 2: first shot, and I think we're approaching three million in
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  Speaker 2: the country. You know, we've got lots of people who
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  Speaker 2: have had the vaccinations without significant side effects. Recognizing there
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  Speaker 2: is that small risk for one of the vaccinations.
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  Speaker 1: Michelle, I've got a question here from Annie and it says, Hi, Katie,
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  Speaker 1: can you please ask if the people who have already
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  Speaker 1: done their first astrosenica vaccine and were sick, if they
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  Speaker 1: chose to do the PIZ or is that something that
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  Speaker 1: they're allowed to do. I've asked my GP and he
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  Speaker 1: says that he's unaware of what he can do in
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  Speaker 1: that case.
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  Speaker 2: So a couple of points there. The first is you
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  Speaker 2: can't mix the vaccines. So if astrasenica was the one
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  Speaker 2: you had first, then that's the one you need to
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  Speaker 2: have second to complete your course if you like to
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  Speaker 2: be fully vaccinated. I'm not sure when your listener said
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  Speaker 2: that she was sick with the first one. We do
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  Speaker 2: expect lots of people, in fact, probably have to have
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  Speaker 2: a reaction to a vaccination for bit of a headache,
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  Speaker 2: perhaps feeling a bit weary, and that's actually quite normal.
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  Speaker 2: The very small tiny portion of people who are having
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  Speaker 2: that significant adverse event are of course a small group
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  Speaker 2: being managed very differently, but it's a very small number
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  Speaker 2: of people, and I would venture to suggest that your
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  Speaker 2: listener probably fits in the first category. And she's had
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  Speaker 2: a reaction to the vaccine. That's actually a good thing,
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  Speaker 2: it means your bodies responding.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, I know that both my brother and sister
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  Speaker 1: in law, they live in the UK actually where the
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  Speaker 1: vaccine indeed is being rolled out, and they had said
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  Speaker 1: one of them said that they had bad bruising on
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  Speaker 1: their arm, but that went away fairly quickly, even though
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  Speaker 1: interestingly the vaccine didn't hurt at all, and then the
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  Speaker 1: other did end up with flu like symptoms. But both
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  Speaker 1: who I guess for that different perspective for us in
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  Speaker 1: the territory because they've been living somewhere where they've been
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  Speaker 1: in full lockdown. Both said to me, I cannot understand
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  Speaker 1: why anybody wouldn't get the vaccine, you know, after living
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  Speaker 1: somewhere where they've been hit so incredibly hard by COVID.
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  Speaker 1: You know, they had really said that it's such an
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  Speaker 1: important thing to do, you know, especially, and I guess
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  Speaker 1: it's more evident for them when you're living somewhere where
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  Speaker 1: you've been in lockdown for such a long time.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's absolutely correct. I mean, you know, we are
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  Speaker 2: so fortunate in the territory and largely in Australia, generally
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  Speaker 2: that we are living a relatively normal life, and we
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  Speaker 2: have seen very thankfully a small proportion of people become
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  Speaker 2: ill and an even smaller proportion die. But of course,
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  Speaker 2: if you live in parts of the UK, parts of
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  Speaker 2: the US, every family would either have a family member
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  Speaker 2: or a friend who had died. That's the volume of
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  Speaker 2: people that have really been terribly affected. And so you
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  Speaker 2: can certainly understand the different views that your family's expressing.
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  Speaker 2: They're saying, goodness, gracious, we really want to get out
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  Speaker 2: of this. We're in a different position, but we equally,
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  Speaker 2: you know, people want to be able to open the
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  Speaker 2: country back up. We want the ability to travel and
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  Speaker 2: live the life that we did, and that means we
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  Speaker 2: need to be vaccinated.
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  Speaker 1: Another question, Michelle from Melissa and I know that you
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  Speaker 1: are pressed for time, as are we. One here that says, hi, Katie,
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  Speaker 1: can you ask if you're allowed to choose which vaccine
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  Speaker 1: you have?
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  Speaker 2: No? The answer now is no. The vaccines are given
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  Speaker 2: according to that age breakdown, with the very rare exception
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  Speaker 2: of a couple of very particular health issues that if
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  Speaker 2: you had your health advisor would have advised you what
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  Speaker 2: to do in that circumstuct, but largely at the moment,
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  Speaker 2: it's lit on age.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so it is definitely an age based thing. Have
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  Speaker 1: you had a situation, Michelle, where any of that vaccine
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  Speaker 1: has had to be destroyed or gone to waste because
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  Speaker 1: you haven't been able to get it out in a
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  Speaker 1: time in the timeframe that you need to.
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  Speaker 2: So there's a couple of a couple of aspects to that.
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  Speaker 2: These are multi dose vials, which is an unusual way
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  Speaker 2: for us to give vaccine. So basically, if there's ten
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  Speaker 2: shots in the vial and you've only got six people
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  Speaker 2: booked in for their vaccinations, then unless you can use
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  Speaker 2: those other four doses within the very tight timeframe that
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  Speaker 2: we're allowed to, then you are going to have some wastage.
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  Speaker 2: And I use the term we very broadly, meaning everyone
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  Speaker 2: who's responsible for giving vaccines are doing our absolutely best
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  Speaker 2: to minimize that wastage because we know that there's a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people who want vaccine, so we don't want
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  Speaker 2: to waste it. It's a bit more complicated in the
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  Speaker 2: remote areas there's not other people. You know, if you've
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  Speaker 2: got some left in the bottle, you might not have
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  Speaker 2: anyone else who's ready to have a vaccine yet, But
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  Speaker 2: generally speaking, across the territory, our wastage rates have been
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  Speaker 2: quite comparable with other areas well.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds as though things are rolling through as quickly
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  Speaker 1: as we can hope. I guess at this point how quickly,
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  Speaker 1: I guess it's way too early to tell. But how
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  Speaker 1: quickly do you hope that you know that everybody in
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  Speaker 1: the territory is vaccinated?
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  Speaker 2: It is a bit difficult to tell. What I'd like
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  Speaker 2: to think is that the amount of vaccination we've got
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  Speaker 2: in the territory is being used so that you know,
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  Speaker 2: people are accessing it now that it's available, that they're
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  Speaker 2: getting their vaccination, and we're not in a position where
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  Speaker 2: we've got, you know, spare doses. I think that's a
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  Speaker 2: good measure of success for us. And the supply coming in,
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  Speaker 2: of course, is a bit outside our control. But if
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  Speaker 2: we're able to assure ourselves that we're using what we've got,
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  Speaker 2: meaning people are getting vaccinated, then I think that's a
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  Speaker 2: good measure.
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  Speaker 1: And do we have as much supply coming in as
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  Speaker 1: what we as what we want at this point?
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  Speaker 2: Michelle, Yes, at the moment, we actually have a capacity
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  Speaker 2: to vaccine people, we've got supply, we've got our vaccination
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: teams working hard, so that's why we're really keen for
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  Speaker 2: people who are in those large eligible groups to book
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  Speaker 2: a book an appointment. Of course, I might just reiterate
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  Speaker 2: that for Darwin and Alice Springs. Yep, the Tenant Creek
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  Speaker 2: community is well advanced in their vaccination and we expect
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  Speaker 2: to announce arrangements for Catherine and to go in the
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  Speaker 2: very near future.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, well let us know andt Health Deputy Chief Executive
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  Speaker 1: Michelle McKay, we really appreciate your time this morning, especially
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: answering those questions for our listeners.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thanks so much,