The president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Omar Khorshid, says it is unlikely lockdown measures can contain the Delta outbreak in New South Wales and has urged the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) to recommend the AstraZeneca vaccine for more age groups.
Currently, the Atagi advice recommends the Pfizer vaccine, which is in short supply and high demand in Australia, “as the preferred vaccine for those aged 16 to under 60 years” due to the risk of rare but severe clotting known as TTS linked to AstraZeneca and more frequent in the under-60 age group.
Khorshid said that advice must be changed given the growing number of infections in NSW, with a concerning number of people still in the community, including in workplaces and supermarkets, while infectious. During her daily update on Friday, the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said vaccination would now be key to containing the outbreak and getting out of lockdown.
“The problem is we…