Vaccination rates for Indigenous people in Victoria have been revised down after software error detected

A software glitch is blamed for improperly inflating the number of Indigenous Australians believed to have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in Victoria.

The state had been hailed as a success at a time when Indigenous vaccination rates continue to lag behind the general population elsewhere.

Figures released by the federal government on Sunday suggest that 47,954 Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in Victoria received a dose of the vaccine, including 30,951 fully vaccinated.

However, those numbers were revised down on Monday to 21,559 people who received a first dose and 12,209 fully vaccinated.

According to the National COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, led by Lt. Gen. John Frewen, that meant the Indigenous vaccination rate in Victoria had dropped from over 60% of those given a first dose to around 45% .

“Nationally, there was also a slight decrease in the coverage rate of the first dose for Aborigines and / or Torres Strait Islanders, from 38.7% to 36.3%. [based on data at 8 September 2021], “It said.

The task force blamed a software glitch that “wrongly assigned Aboriginal status to patients where the field was left blank.”

Victoria’s health department insisted the problem was the responsibility of the Commonwealth.

“We are delighted that the vaccinations of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders are progressing at a rapid rate in Victoria,” said a spokesperson.

“We accept that this data issue was unintentional on the part of the software vendor and the Commonwealth.”

Federal Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney said the mistake was disappointing.

“It is true that Victoria was considered the gold standard in terms of the rollout of vaccination for First Nations people, but I want to know the details,” she said.

Priority communities for the vaccine

The error in the immunization data was exposed when the federal government announced a plan to try to speed up deployment to 30 indigenous communities, which have some of the lowest immunization rates in the country.

“I am very concerned that we are reaching the national immunization rates of 70 percent fully immunized, 80 percent fully immunized,” General Frewen said.

“In some of the bigger communities, we’ll do things like great clinics, you know, kind of a lightning-quick effort to get a lot of people through.

“In other areas, we will do a very close community consultation, with an information campaign to prepare the community to accept the vaccination, and then we will deliver the vaccines there.

“But we are increasing the allocations to various clinics. We are looking for additional funding. We are getting the [communication] the plans have been made. “

An additional $ 7 million will be provided to the National Indigenous Community-Controlled Health Organization, with some of the funding being used to hire more staff, who will liaise directly with the communities.

There is also funding for First Nations Media Australia, which has been asked to produce new publicity material that can be shared among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the vaccine rollout, to address reluctance to the vaccination.

The 30 priority communities are:

• Western Australia – Greater Geraldton, Swan, Gosnells, Derby – West Kimberley, Port Hedland – South Hedland, Kalgoorlie – Boulder, Goldfields Esperance Region
• Queensland – Brisbane, Bundaberg, Cairns, Fraser Coast, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Logan, Mackay, Mareeba, Mission River, Moreton Bay, Normanton, Palm Island, Rockhampton, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba and Townsville
• New South Wales – Central Coast and Wollongong regions
• Northern Territory – Greater Darwin, Northeast Arnhem Land and Barkly
• South Australia – Port Lincoln.

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