CORONAVIRUS —
VACCINATIONS — CORRECTIVE SERVICES
380. Hon COLIN de GRUSSA to the minister representing the
Minister for Corrective Services:
I refer to the article by Joe
Spagnolo in The Sunday Times on 1 August titled ''Jailed WA
prisoners, criminals get Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine''.
(1) Can the
minister confirm whether any of the 4 000 prisoners vaccinated were over the
age of 60; and, if yes, how many received —
(a) Pfizer; or
(b) AstraZeneca?
(2) How many prisoners have now
received two doses of either vaccine, to be fully vaccinated with —
(a) Pfizer; or
(b) AstraZeneca?
(3) For (1) and
(2), for each vaccine, please detail how many prisoners vaccinated were over
the age of 60.
(4) Why were
prison officers not offered the same opportunity, despite the fact that they
are frontline workers and spare phials were left over?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the
question. The following information has been provided to me by the Minister for
Corrective Services.
(1) There are
currently 260 persons in custody aged over 60, or four per cent of the total
population, and all have had the opportunity to access the Pfizer vaccine.
(2) At close of
business on 2 August 2021, 165 prisoners had received a vaccine.
(a) Of those, 165
were Pfizer.
(b) Zero were
AstraZeneca.
(3) In total, 260 persons over the age of 60 were
given the opportunity to access the Pfizer vaccine. A breakdown of how
many of this cohort consented to the vaccine is unavailable at this point.
(4) All staff
working within Western Australian custodial facilities have been eligible for
vaccinations since early March 2021, in phase 1a and 1b, through community
services. The planning for the conduct of each clinic has proved very
efficient. The stocks of vaccines were fully utilised at most sites and wastage
has been extremely low across all sites.