‘Hit and miss’: fewer than one in five Australians in disability care vaccinated against Covid-19

Just 5,000 Australians in disability care – fewer than one in five people – have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 more than four months into the rollout, new data shows.

The disability care industry has also warned some providers are again being forced to source their own vaccinations, rather than wait for commonwealth in-reach teams to turn up.

The federal government placed disability care residents in the highest priority cohort for its vaccine program, but faced criticism when, without consultation, it pivoted all resources to vaccinating aged care.

In April, the government was criticised for the “incredibly low” rate of vaccination in disability care, prompting health department secretary Brendan Murphy to assure the rollout in the sector would ramp up from the week of 26 April.

Data provided to Guardian Australia by the health department shows about 16,510 total doses have now been administered to a cohort of about 27,236 national disability insurance scheme participants who are aged 16 years and over and living in shared disability residential accommodation.

About 11,470 people had received a first dose.

Just 5,040 have received both doses and are fully vaccinated.

Disability care residents and staff were supposed to be vaccinated within six weeks of the rollout’s commencement in mid-February.

While still far behind where the government had planned to be, the numbers show improvement in vaccination rates in disability care. Tracking progress is difficult, because the government does not provide regular, specific data on disability care vaccinations.

The last update given by the government was that 7,350 doses had been provided in early June.

Disability care residents are supposed to receive their vaccines through privately-contracted in-reach teams. Guardian Australia revealed in April that many disability care providers were being forced to circumvent the system and go to general practitioners to obtain vaccines for their residents, because commonwealth in-reach teams were simply not showing up.

Two months on, National Disability Services (NDS), the peak industry group, said some of its members had “reverted to arranging vaccinations for their participants with local clinics instead of waiting for the commonwealth in-service”.

A spokesman said feedback from its members had painted a “mixed picture of the vaccine rollout across the disability sector over the past few weeks”.

“The consensus seems to be a system that is improving yet still has much room for improvement – particularly in coordinating bookings and ironing out confusion surrounding the bureaucracy, but also what needs to be in place to support the process of administering vaccines to people with significant disability,” he said.

“‘Patchy’ and ‘hit and miss’ are phrases we have heard members recently use for the rollout. Quite smooth for some but still very troubled for others. Many have reverted to arranging vaccinations for their participants with local clinics instead of waiting for the commonwealth in-service.”

The peak body has also called for vaccinations to be made mandatory for disability care workers. The government introduced a similar mandate this week for aged care workers.

“The vulnerability of people with disability was recognised by the federal government when people with disability were included in phases 1a and 1b of the vaccine rollout,” NDS senior state and territory manager Karen Stace said.

“That same recognition now must extend to vaccination policy by similarly mandating the vaccine for frontline disability workers. It just makes sense.”

The health department said it was working to provide improved data on the vaccination program.

“Lieutenant General John Frewen, the head of operation Covid shield, is currently undertaking a review of the vaccine data, and further data by cohort will be made available in due course,” a spokesman said