Australia shortens booster wait as Omicron explosion turns holidays into chaos

Australia has cut the wait interval for a booster shot to four months to anyone over 18, and will reduce it to three months by end-January. PHOTO: REUTERS

SYDNEY (REUTERS) - Australia will further shorten the wait time for people to receive their Covid-19 vaccine booster shots, Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Friday (Dec 24), as another record jump in daily infections resulted in cancelled flights and sent Christmas travel plans into disarray.

Booster shots will be offered from Jan 4 to everyone over 18 who had their second shot four months earlier and the interval will be again reduced to three months by the end of January.

"These dates have been set out of an abundance of caution to give Australians early continued protection," Mr Hunt said during a media conference in Canberra.

Most states had been pressing the federal government to make more people eligible for boosters to stem the growing tide of Omicron cases which reached 9,100 on Friday. Authorities two weeks ago reduced the wait time to five months from six.

While most new cases were previously in New South Wales and Victoria states, neighbouring Queensland and South Australia clocked sharp increases.

Media reported thousands of people planning to travel interstate for Christmas the following day had their plans thrown into chaos as airlines cancelled or postponed flights due to frontline staff being forced to isolate due to possible exposures to the virus.

Sydney Airport, the country’s busiest, cancelled 80 of its 500 domestic flights on Friday, a spokesman told Reuters, without giving a reason.

Australia has been looking to ramp up the roll-out of boosters after becoming one of the world's most-vaccinated countries against Covid-19, with more than 90 per cent of people over the age of 16 having received two doses.

A growing number of countries are reducing the wait time for boosters from six months after the emergence of the Omicron variant.

This month, South Korea, Britain and Thailand cut that interval to three months.

The latest move on boosters comes as Australia's daily infections hovered near record levels on Friday, prompting states to reinstate some restrictions.

The country reported just over 7,700 new cases, mainly in its most populous states of Victoria and New South Wales.

Despite record cases, the authorities are hoping the hospitals will not come under extreme pressure from the new strain, which they say appears to be less severe than other variants.

The number of people admitted in hospitals is rising steadily, but remains far lower than during the Delta outbreaks.

Just over 4 per cent of patients in hospitals have been infected with Omicron as at Monday, with only one in intensive care.

The World Health Organisation earlier this month warned wealthy countries against hoarding Covid-19 vaccines for booster shots as they try to fight off the new Omicron variant, saying it threatened supplies for poorer countries where inoculation rates are still low.

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.