CORONAVIRUS — VACCINATIONS — REGIONS
1068. Hon MARTIN ALDRIDGE to the minister representing the
Minister for Health:
I refer to a report by ABC Pilbara
on 19 November titled ''WA regions with low COVID vaccination rates
likely to be closed off from rest of state, Premier says''.
(1) Does the
state government have access to local government area data or any other
localised data for communities in the Pilbara, Kimberley or Gascoyne regions?
(2) If yes to
(1), please table this data.
(3) If no to
(1), how is the state government monitoring vaccination rates for communities
in these regions?
(4) Please
identify any local government areas in Western Australia that have not reached
a 70 per cent single-dose vaccination rate.
Hon STEPHEN DAWSON
replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the
question. The following answer has been provided to me by the Minister for
Health.
(1) Yes.
(2) As this
data is Australian government data, WA Health is not authorised to release it,
as per the commonwealth Australian Immunisation Register Act 2015. However, a weekly
report is published by the Australian government. I have a website address, but
it is not our information, so I provide it by way of information to the
honourable member in case he wants to look for it. It is
https://www.health.gov.au/resources/collections/covid-19-vaccination-geograpahic-vaccination-rates-lga.
Hon Dr
Steve Thomas: I suggest you give it to Hansard!
Hon STEPHEN DAWSON: I am being helpful. What happens
in this place if we do not give this stuff is that someone stands up at the end
of the day and has a go at us, so I am trying to be helpful, honourable member.
I am trying to be helpful. You cannot have it both ways.
The answer continues: the
website provides select information
about vaccination coverage by local government area, with certain
caveats to the data, including reporting for ages 15 years and over only and
excluding data on remote and very remote LGAs.
(3) Not applicable.
(4) Refer to (2).