The rollout of Australia’s Covid-19 Vaccine for people with disability has been fraught with scandal, but it’s now recovering and for people over 16 on the NDIS, 77% have had at least one dose. It’s even greater news for people living with disability in shared residential accommodation, where over 77% have had both doses and are fully vaccinated.
Originally, people on the NDIS living in shared accommodation were slated to have priority access, in the form of ‘in-reach’ teams that visited group homes to vaccinate participants. Without notification, and what the royal commission identified as “a lack of transparency” the government at a senate hearing admitted to deprioritizing the group. This came much after the original announcement and left disability providers in the dark for six weeks. The royal commission outlined two other core problems for the vaccine rollout for people with disabilities, these being curtailed access to vaccines and a failure to provide information in an accessible form.
The Government has accepted all recommendations from the royal commission’s report, bar number 4 which regards the easing of restrictions in line with vaccination thresholds being reached. Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt noted this is the responsibility of state at territory governments.
From the 8th of November, residents of disability facilities will be part of the first group for vaccine booster shots. The booster program is said to be rolled out directly to people living in disability facilities through an ‘in-reach’ program.
You can view more information and advice about Covid-19 for people with disability here.
You can view the media release from the minister’s update here.