An estimated 2000 workers will have been vaccinated with two rounds of the Pfizer vaccine by the end of May.But the state opposition has called for the rollout to be sped up, after the government suggested it might not restart international arrivals until workers had been vaccinated.Alfred Health has vaccinated 483 workers in a bid to lessen the risk of highly infectious strains of coronavirus escaping quarantine and sending the state into lockdown again. Complex care hotel staff were first in line, with plans to scale up vaccinations in each quarantine hotel in coming weeks. A government spokesman confirmed the hotel workforce was the priority, but would not yet confirm when Victoria would reopen to overseas travellers. The state stopped taking international flights during the Holiday Inn outbreak.“All staff at CQV are expected to have received both doses of the vaccine within three months,” the spokeswoman said.“The speed at which the commonwealth government makes vaccines available for frontline staff — as well as rates of transmission among those vaccinated — will be key considerations before any changes are made to the number of overseas Victorians able to be accommodated in the quarantine system.” Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the rollout was too slow.“The problems still remain within hotel quarantine and clearly the government doesn’t have faith in the system, otherwise hotel quarantine workers would be vaccinated as part of the priority,” she said. “It’s clear Daniel Andrews has no intention to get hotel quarantine up and running soon.”Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said he hoped vaccinations for hotel quarantine workers would increase as more vaccine became available. “In terms of the hotel quarantine workers, I think the additional doses that are being distributed to the states and territories, today and tomorrow, will assist them,” he said on Sunday. “The extra 50,000 that is being distributed now, the extra 200,000 that should be distributed by Monday of next week, and that will give them sufficient doses to be able to ensure that all of their hotel quarantine workers and, indeed, their phase 1A workers will be in a strong place. “I’ll leave it to individual states and territories but they are doing a great job.” It comes as Avalon Airport management submitted a formal proposal to government to set up 400 self-contained quarantine units on 12ha at the site with the aim of moving hotel quarantine away from Melbourne’s CBD to a more remote and secure site. Premier Daniel Andrews has identified Avalon as a “standout” contender to potentially supplement or replace the state quarantine system.Airport chief executive Justin Giddings said: “The facility will be safer (because) all the interactions between the workers and the residents will be done outside.” The Avalon plan could be introduced in three stages, including two of 152 units and one of 112 units.Mr Giddings said returned travellers using the proposed Avalon site would not leave the airport grounds during quarantine, and workers would remain on site for their shifts and could potentially stay in onsite accommodation after work.Under the plan, only passengers who pass a COVID-19 test overseas would be allowed to fly to Avalon, and all would be retested on arrival.A concept plan from late February shows Avalon has the capacity for a 416-unit quarantine centre about 600m from the terminal. alexandra.white@news.com.au
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