{"id":837275,"date":"2026-08-01T07:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T07:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/837275\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T07:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T07:03:13","slug":"wa-set-to-fall-short-of-immunisation-targets-as-free-vaccination-period-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/837275\/","title":{"rendered":"WA set to fall short of immunisation targets as free vaccination period ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Western Australia is set to fall short of the ambitious vaccination targets it set ahead of the flu season.<\/p>\n

After the state experienced its worst season since at least 2001 last year, which was blamed in part on poor vaccination rates, the government set what it described as “ambitious” targets.<\/p>\n

But the government’s extended free flu vaccination program ended yesterday, with immunisation rates still a way off from the targets.<\/p>\n

The targets included protecting 30 per cent of babies and young children under 12 years, lifting coverage to 65 per cent for people aged 65 and over, and setting a new “benchmark immunisation rate” across the state of 40 per cent of the population vaccinated.<\/p>\n

WA records worst-ever flu season amid poor vaccination rates<\/a><\/p>\n

Western Australia records its worst flu season on record, with more than 30,000 influenza cases reported this year.<\/p>\n

But according to the most recent data, issued on Monday, the state was still well short of its ambitions.<\/p>\n

Senior West Australians came closest to their target, just over 6 per cent off the 65 per cent target.<\/p>\n

Children between six months and 12 years old were next closest, falling 6.5 per cent short of their aim.<\/p>\n

The gap was nearly double for the general population though, with just 28 per cent of West Australians getting jabbed, well short of the 40 per cent target.<\/p>\n

Free vaccinations a ‘good job’<\/p>\n

Vaccination policy researcher Katie Attwell said the government was in a difficult position because hitting the targets was always going to be challenging.<\/p>\n

“There can be so many reasons that doesn’t occur, but that doesn’t mean that governments [shouldn’t] stick their neck out and say, ‘Yeah, we really want this, we are really putting a whole of government approach behind this,'” the University of Western Australia professor said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Katie Attwell says vaccine goals can be difficult. (ABC News: Herlyn Kaur)<\/p>\n

“Because that also sends an important signal, but importantly, also, it unlocks the machinery of government to make sure that they are doing everything they can be doing to make it easy enough for us to go and do what they would like us to do.”<\/p>\n

Professor Attwell said the government had done a “really good job” at trying to increase vaccination rates, including making it free.<\/p>\n

That work was part of a more than $100 million plan to help the health system prepare for flu season<\/a>, including by paying for beds in private hospitals.<\/p>\n

More accessible vaccinations<\/p>\n

In a statement, a WA government spokesperson said flu and RSV vaccinations had been made “more accessible than ever before”.<\/p>\n

“We’ve introduced the needle-free FluMist option for children, facilitated pop-up vaccination clinics and increased pharmacy vaccination access,” they said.<\/p>\n

“We’re pleased to see a notable uptick in the number of children being vaccinated this year, likely driven by the introduction of free FluMist.<\/p>\n

“Almost half of children who received FluMist this year had not received an influenza vaccine in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

FluMist is a nasal vaccine designed for children who are anxious about needles. (ABC News: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n

“As of 26 July, more than 860,000 Western Australians have received an influenza vaccination.<\/p>\n

“Influenza notifications and hospitalisations for the year to date are lower compared to the previous five-year average.”<\/p>\n

The spokesperson added, however, that RSV notifications and hospitalisations were higher.<\/p>\n

“This serves as a strong reminder to parents of infants, pregnant women and people over the age of 75 to get their free RSV vaccination.<\/p>\n

“Over 100,000 Western Australians have accessed their free RSV vaccination this year, in comparison to 20,156 Western Australians in 2025.”<\/p>\n

Do you know more?<\/p>\n

Contact Keane Bourke on encrypted email<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Please note you will need your own encrypted email account, such as Protonmail<\/a>, to ensure end-to-end encryption.<\/p>\n

Opposition health spokesperson Libby Mettam said she was not surprised the government had fallen short of its targets.<\/p>\n

“We had called for the Cook Labor government to introduce the flu vaccination earlier, which would have given people more options and ensured that it was also more accessible,” she said.<\/p>\n

Flu cases drop<\/p>\n

This year’s flu season appears less serious than last year’s, with about 5,340 cases reported to WA Health between January and June, about a third of the 16,495 infections reported over the same period last year.<\/p>\n

RSV infections, on the other hand, are up compared to 2025, with 6,658 cases reported to authorities so far this year, compared to 6,242 last year.<\/p>\n

This is why the government is still encouraging people to take advantage of free RSV vaccines, which are available for some pregnant women, infants, children and older West Australians.<\/p>\n

Ambulance ramping, one of the clearest signs of how much pressure hospitals are under, was higher than last month, with ambulances spending 5,924 hours parked outside of hospitals waiting to transfer patients.<\/p>\n

But that is lower than both July 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

\"Libby<\/p>\n

Libby Mettam says ambulance ramping has hit “horror” levels. (ABC News: Pip Waller)<\/p>\n

“We have become accustomed to record levels, and horror levels, of ambulance ramping in our hospital system,” Ms Mettam said.<\/p>\n

“Over 5,600 hours represents a horror story for many patients, but also our healthcare workers who continue to do more with less.”<\/p>\n

Ms Mettam said it was down to luck that flu rates were lower, and the health system was able to cope better, rather than the government’s efforts.<\/p>\n

An increasing challenge<\/p>\n

Improving vaccination rates has been an increasing challenge for health authorities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

80,000 kids aged five and under behind on vaccinations<\/a><\/p>\n

The latest immunisation data shows more than 80,000 Australian children aged five and under are not fully up to date with their vaccinations.<\/p>\n

Professor Attwell said there were no simple solutions, but it was important for governments and researchers to continue trying to understand why people are not getting vaccinated.<\/p>\n

“It’s easy to draw the wrong conclusions about why vaccination isn’t occurring,” she said, urging people not to write off those who are not immunised.<\/p>\n

Instead, Professor Attwell said it was important to ask questions like: “How do we reach those people? What is standing in their way? What worries do they have?<\/p>\n

“There will be segmentation of that population with different reasons underpinning why this year, so far, this hasn’t been the offer that they’re ready to take up,” she added.<\/p>\n

But she remained optimistic that if the government kept showing up and trying to reach more people, its efforts would be successful in the long run.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Katie Attwell says continued efforts to vaccinate more people would be successful in the long term. (ABC News: Billy Cooper)<\/p>\n

AMA WA president Kyle Hoath said it was up to everyone to improve vaccination rates.<\/p>\n

“Immunisation is one of the most effective and cost-efficient public health measures we have, and it saves lives,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Higher vaccination rates help to protect the Western Australian population, particularly in the winter months when the flu is prevalent.<\/p>\n

“We encourage all Western Australians to have their flu shot, protecting themselves, and doing their bit to protect fellow Western Australians.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Western Australia is set to fall short of the ambitious vaccination targets it set ahead of the flu…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,227183,144,138,409654,282225,409652,137,68245,145,86,409656,409655,3851,409657,127445,409653,45,9570,9569],"class_list":["post-837275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cold-symptoms","tag-flu","tag-flu-season","tag-flu-symptoms","tag-flu-vaccination","tag-free-vaccination","tag-health","tag-immunisation","tag-influenza","tag-perth-news","tag-runny-nose","tag-sore-throat","tag-vaccination","tag-vaccination-targets","tag-vaccinations","tag-wa-governement","tag-wa-news","tag-wa-politics","tag-wa-pols"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}