Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath has defended the state’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout after a Brisbane doctor contracted the virus from a patient.

March 14, 2021

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath has defended Queensland’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout after a doctor contracted the virus from a patient at a Brisbane hospital.

Ms D’Ath also refuted claims the personal protection equipment made available to frontline health workers wasn’t good enough.

“We comply with the national guidelines and standards in relation to all of the PPE that we provide to our staff in our hospitals,” she told reporters on Sunday.

“I have been advised the doctor was wearing the appropriate PPE.”

Ms D’Ath rejected assertions the doctor – who was working at Princess Alexandra Hospital – wouldn’t have contracted the virus if she’d been inoculated.

“We don’t have anyone in Australia that is fully vaccinated,” she said.

Ms D’Ath said the vaccine wouldn’t stop people from contracting the virus but would prevent an infected person from becoming seriously ill and lower the risk of transmission.

“It’s completely inaccurate to say that if this doctor had their first vaccination then they wouldn’t have got it,” she said.

Ms D’Ath said frontline health and border workers and hotel quarantine staff were being prioritised within Phase 1A of the vaccine rollout and half of 3862 workers at PA had received their first dose.

“It’s not the case that we aren’t delivering the vaccine to all of those doctors and nurses working in COVID wards every day,” she said.

“We have to remember we’re in week three (of the rollout).”

Ms D’Ath said 11,500 people would be given their first vaccine dose next week and more than 18,000 of the state’s 37,000 frontline health workers had already been inoculated.

She cautioned against making assumptions about how the doctor contracted the virus, saying an investigation was underway.

The female doctor had contact with two infected patients in the early hours of Wednesday before testing positive on Friday.

One of the patients is likely to have passed on the highly contagious UK strain of the virus, Deputy Chief Health Officer Sonya Bennett said.

The doctor worked a shift at PA late on Wednesday and Thursday while asymptomatic and was infectious in the community for about a day.

She assessed the patients for admission to the hospital and would have involved face-to-face contact, Dr Bennett said.

“My understanding is she moved through the hospital depending on where the need was,” she said.

The PA remains in lockdown and all hospitals, aged care and disability facilities in the Greater Brisbane area are closed to visitors, and masks must be worn inside them.

A quarantine hotel is also in lockdown as health authorities investigate an infected traveller for links to the doctor.

The traveller was staying at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, on the same floor and at the same time as another infected traveller, who is now at the PA.

That patient had contact with the doctor who later became infected with coronavirus.