Deep in multiple lockdowns and looking down the barrel of another month at home, having any idea of what the next few months will look like has been almost impossible in the mids of the Covid pandemic. The only idea we’ve been able to hold on is Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s announcement that ‘once 70 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Australia will transition to a new phase of reopening.’
Once the 70 per cent vaccination target is met (as of today we are at 20%), Australia will move to Phase B of the government’s four-stage plan out of the pandemic. We are currently in Phase A – the suppression phase.
So what do the next stages mean?
Phase B
The 70 per cent target will need to be reached by not just the entire nation, but also by each state or territory. Once the respective state or territory has achieved the 70 per cent target, they will then move into Phase B.
Under Phase B, Australia will strive to minimise serious illness, hospitalisations and fatalities as a result of COVID-19 with “low-level restrictions” – the exact definition of which is not clear. Lockdowns in Phase B will be “unlikely” but still “possible”.
People who are vaccinated will also get special privileges, compared to unvaccinated people.
“So if you get vaccinated, there will be special rules that apply to you [once we reach Phase B],” Morrison announced on Friday. “Why? Because if you’re vaccinated, you present less of a public health risk. You are less likely to get the virus. You are less likely to transmit it.”
Caps on international arrival will still exist in Phase B, but will be increased from Phase A. There will also be larger caps for fully vaccinated people.
Phase C
Phase C will be achieved once 80 per cent of the Australian population is fully vaccinated. At this stage, only “highly targeted” lockdowns will exist. Other updates will include:
- All vaccinated Australians will be exempt from domestic travel restrictions.
- No more caps on vaccinated Australians returning home.
- No restrictions on outbound travel for vaccinated Australians.
- Reduced quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated inbound travellers.
- Unrestricted travel to new candidate countries, such as Singapore.
- Like the rest of the plan out of the pandemic, there is no timeframe provided for when we are likely to reach Phase C.
Phase D
The last step doesn’t have a confirmed percentage of the population needs to be vaccinated before we enter this phase, but the aim will be to “live with COVID-19” like other infectious diseases such as influenza.
International borders will open in Phase D and the government will allow uncapped inbound arrivals for all vaccinated people without quarantine, as well as uncapped arrivals of non-vaccinated travellers subject to pre-flight and on-arrival testing.
While the plan sounds well and good, qualified experts differ on the requisite threshold for vaccination. Why? Partly because there are so many unknowns, such as how quickly the Delta variant of COVID would spread through Australia if we open up, and how effective the different vaccines will prove to be in preventing transmission.
New Grattan Institute modelling shows it would be dangerous for Australia to open up before at least 80% of the population is vaccinated. Here’s everything you need to know about that theory, according to Stephen Duckett Director, Health Program, Grattan Institute and Will Mackey Senior Associate, Grattan Institute.
Vaccines offer substantial protection
Both vaccines on offer in Australia – Pfizer and AstraZeneca – are effective at preventing infections from the Delta strain. Two doses of Pfizer offers about 88% protection against infection, while two doses of AstraZeneca offers about 67% protection.
Vaccinated people can still catch COVID, but those that do pass it on to about half as many others compared to the unvaccinated.
Evidence from the United Kingdom, Canada, and the European Union – areas with higher vaccination levels than Australia – also suggests both vaccines offer substantial protection against hospitalisation and death from COVID. A vaccinated person is about 95% less likely than an unvaccinated person to end up in hospital with COVID.
Now for the bad news.
The delta strain is far more infectious
Researchers estimate the Delta variant is 50% to 100% more infectious than the Alpha variant, which itself was more transmissible than the variant that was dominant throughout 2020.
The effective reproduction number, or Reff, tells us how many people one infected person will spread the virus to, taking into account behaviour and public health measures in place designed to reduce transmission, such as masks and physical distancing.
If the Reff of the Delta variant in Australia is around 6 without vaccination, having 50% vaccination coverage will reduce the Reff to 3.
But the national goal must be to bring the Reff down to below 1, which would mean each person who was infected would infect less than one other person – and the virus would eventually peter out.
The higher the vaccination rate, the lower the effective reproduction number. Each person vaccinated offers a chance of breaking a chain of transmission that might lead to an outbreak.
Not only are vaccinated people less likely to become infected, they are also less likely to pass the virus onto others if they are.
The higher the vaccination rate, the lower the effective reproduction number
Effective reproduction number (Reff) by population vaccination rate
So why do we need 80% of people vaccinated?
Grattan Institute’s model simulates the spread of COVID within a partially vaccinated population, and helps us peek into the future.
It uses age-based hospitalisation and intensive care unit (ICU) admission rates from more than a year of COVID data from Australian ICU units. It also assumes children under 16 are about one-fifth less likely to get COVID, and children over the age of two are able to be vaccinated.
In most of our simulations, older people have higher rates of vaccination, and no age group has more than 95% vaccine coverage.
We ran thousands of simulations of different vaccination rates, and different estimates of the Reff. The outcomes for 12 distinct scenarios are shown in the table below.
You can see why we recommend Australia not open up until at least 80% of the population is vaccinated – it is the only scenario where the virus is managed, with hospitalisations and deaths kept down to reasonable levels, even if the Reff is high.
Modelling for COVID-19 outbreak at different levels of vaccination, by virus Reff value.
Modelling for COVID-19 outbreak at different levels of vaccination, by virus Reff value.
Let’s break it down
Our simulations show that opening up at 50% vaccination rate (scenario 1) is a very bad idea, with many, many thousands of deaths.
Scenarios 2 and 3 are the optimist’s and gambler’s scenarios. If you are lucky and the Reff of Delta in Australia is 4 (with 70% vaccination rate) or 5 (with 75% vaccination rate), deaths and hospitalisations would not rise above moderate levels, and lockdowns could end and the borders could reopen.
But if you gambled on the wrong Reff, our hospitals would be overwhelmed and deaths would be unacceptably high. Opening the borders is a one-shot gamble: if you make the wrong call, the virus will quickly spread and all the good work and hard yards of living through lock-downs over the previous two years will have been wasted.
Public health decision-making is often risk averse, for the best of reasons. The difference in virus spread, hospitalisations and deaths between opening at 75% and at 80% are big, but the wait between the two thresholds may only be a month or two. This is why we recommend an 80% vaccination rate (scenario 4) as the threshold for opening up.
Even if the Reff of Delta is 6, our hospital system will not be overwhelmed, and deaths will not rise above the number of deaths in a moderate flu season, such as 2010, when there were 2,364 flu deaths.
This article was originally published on The Conversation.
Source: Read Full Article
