Plea for Queensland to resume publishing vaccination status of Covid fatalities

A leading infectious disease expert has questioned why Queensland has stopped releasing the vaccination status of Covid fatalities, as the state struggles to convince residents to get booster shots, despite record hospitalisations from the virus.

Queensland has the lowest rate of Covid booster shots in the country, with less than half the state having received a third dose.

The director of infectious diseases at Mater Health Services, associate prof Paul Griffin, said compiling and releasing vaccination information could help stave off the worst of an outbreak fuelled by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants, against which the first two jabs provide little protection.

Queensland was releasing the vaccination status of Covid deaths earlier in the year.

On 22 January, for example, 10 Queenslanders were reported dead from Covid. Of them, three were unvaccinated, seven were double-vaccinated and none were triple vaccinated.

People may die at home or in aged care from Covid, their vaccination status might not be known and someone needs to ask and then record that information.

It did not answer repeated questions as to why it was not being released to the public.

On Wednesday, 1034 Queenslanders were in hospital with Covid in a wave of infections that continues to surge above the previous peak when, on 25 January, 928 were in hospital.

The state government has been forced to answer questions this week after criticisms of the amount it has spent on campaigns to encourage vaccination.