“We also have our paramedics,who transport them,and we have our border-control people,who meet the people when they get off the planes.
“And,of course,we have our Queensland Police officers,and then the people who go in and do the cleaning.
“Every one of them needs the vaccine as soon as they possibly can,and that is why we have prioritised them.”
Ms D’Ath repeated that 50 per cent of Queensland’s 37,000 frontline health workers – 18,411 staff – had received their first inoculation.
However,Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates said Queensland had already received more than 66,500 vaccination doses – 28,080 Pfizer and 38,480 AstraZeneca shots.
“The Queensland government has administered 18,411 vaccines,” Ms Bates said. “It has administered only 28 per cent of the vaccine stocks it has.
“On Sunday,the Queensland government will be supplied with 19,890 more Pfizer vaccines. On Tuesday,the Queensland government will be supplied with 6480 more AstraZeneca vaccines.
“So instead of ripping up bills and blaming Canberra for everything,the Queensland government should have been fast-tracking the rollout of the vaccine to our frontline staff.
“The Queensland government is behind the eight ball,and now the safety and livelihoods of hardworking,honest Queenslanders are at risk.”
But Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk defended the vaccination rollout to frontline health workers.
“It’s a gradual rollout and[at the Princess Alexandra Hospital],we have already done 1615,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“Not everyone working with people in hotel quarantine have been done[inoculated] to date.”
Dr Bennett said the PA doctor wore all the appropriate personal and protective equipment while working with the COVID patients.
“There were no reported breaches in the wearing of that PPE,” Dr Bennett said. “But what we know about this virus is that it is highly infectious,and the rapidity in which the doctor became infectious shows that.”
Australian Medical Association President Omar Khorshid also defended the doctor on Twitter,saying:“QLD doctor exposed to#COVID,did all the right things,with no breach of PPE protocols and still tests positive. Clearly PPE inadequate.”
Ms D’Ath said the second round of vaccinations for frontline critical health and hotel quarantine workers would begin next week.
The next phase of inoculations following the critical health workers has also begun in the Torres Strait,she said.
“We have chosen to bring the Torres Strait island vaccinations forward because we are seeing large numbers of positive cases in Papua New Guinea,” Ms D’Ath said.
“And with our close borders,we are very concerned about cross-border transmission.“