Influenza Vaccinations

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:23): My question is to the Premier. Is SA Health implementing earlier than planned flu vaccination programs in line with the SA Health Viral Respiratory Disease Pandemic Response Plan?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:24): Again, I'm happy to find out that information and come back to the house. What I do know is that Australia has a very significant number of vaccines available for the flu season this year; off the top of my head, I think it is something like 13 million.

We have a very significant vaccination program in South Australia, where free flu vaccinations are provided to children under the age of five as well as to other people who are in vulnerable cohorts. That is something that we can be very proud of. I think we have led the way in many ways with regard to free flu vaccinations in South Australia.

My understanding is that the federal government have already distributed the majority of the free flu vaccinations around the country—in round terms, about five million of the eight million that they distribute. The remainder is for the private sector. There have been some changes in the patterns to which people are accessing the flu vaccines.

In previous years, we have had to spend a lot of public money encouraging people to go and have a flu vaccine. At the moment, it's almost switched around the other way. People have changed that pattern. They are wanting to get that flu vaccine as quickly as possible. I am advised by the health minister that we have already administered the first wave of those, which should be completed by the end of this week.

I do note in the media that there have been some reports that private patients looking for a vaccine have been held up. That will be a matter of trying to unblock some of those supply chains. But let's be very clear: in South Australia we have a significantly higher number of vaccines coming into our state than we had last year, even though last year was a record flu season.

We are encouraging people to have the flu vaccine, although I would also update the house that we are already receiving some anecdotal information from the health sector around the country that flu presentations and respiratory illnesses are currently, thankfully, on the decline. This could be a flow-on effect from the increased social distancing.

You could imagine that the same protocols and practices that have been put in place to slow the transfer of infection for COVID-19 are having a positive effect in slowing the transfer of the flu and other respiratory illnesses. So that is a positive, and it's one of few positives that we can take out of this horrendous situation that we have in Australia at the moment. I hope that satisfies some of the questions that the member had.