As Omicron sweeps the community, medical experts predict COVID-19 hospitalisations of children will inevitably begin to mount due to the impossibility of vaccinating all children with even one dose before school returns.
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The rollout of the paediatric Pfizer vaccine to children aged five to 11 years is set to begin Monday, but many children are expected to commence the 2022 school year without any protection due to supply constraints.
Anita Munoz, the Victorian chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said existing supply issues would significantly undercut the ability of general practitioners - one of the main vaccine distribution channels - to deliver the necessary first doses to children over the coming weeks.
"From the point of view of supply, we're very much underprepared to vaccinate children," Dr Munoz said.
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"I find it really disheartening that we have a community that's hearing our message about the importance of vaccination and yet our own system is failing them in that we can't deliver the vaccines they're calling for."
The recommended interval between the first and second doses for children is eight weeks, meaning the earliest at least some children will be fully vaccinated is March.
Dr Munoz said this reality - assuming children returned to classroom learning as planned - carried significant risks for both school children and the wider community.
"We don't want any children to have to suffer a preventable illness," she said. "And severe COVID in the majority of cases is preventable with vaccination."
"We also don't want children bringing the virus home to vulnerable members of their family or the community."
While emerging research suggests Omicron infection results, on average, in less severe disease than previous strains, the most recent international data with respect to children infected with Omicron stands at odds with that position.
Children and young teenagers comprised 17 per cent of COVID hospitalisations in South Africa during its Omicron wave, compared to just four per cent when Delta hit.
Similarly, COVID hospitalisations of children in the United States have also reached unprecedented heights in recent weeks, with an average 672 children hospitalised every day as of January 2.
Leading epidemiologist Nancy Baxter, head of the Melbourne school of population and global health at the University of Melbourne, said the higher rates of paediatric hospitalisation witnessed overseas likely owed to the extreme transmissibility of Omicron among children.
"Omicron is highly contagious and can send people to hospital, so it's obviously not a completely mild disease in everybody," Professor Baxter said.
"We know the vast majority of children will get quite mild disease with COVID, but the small percentage who [do experience serious disease] clearly ends up being a big number when you have thousands upon thousands of children being infected."
Professor Baxter said it was all but inevitable the return to classroom settings would result in a legion of superspreader events, leaving children, teachers and other staff within the school system acutely vulnerable to infection.
"As we saw with Delta, a lot of community transmission happened in schools," she said.
"I hope that any adult that's due for their booster has their booster because they will be at very high risk of contracting Omicron."
Vaccine bookings for children have also proved hard to come by at UFS pharmacies in Ballarat, due to both lack of staff and supply problems, with no bookings available until late February.
UFS chief pharmacist Peter Fell said around a dozen pharmacists had been furloughed due to COVID exposure in recent days, resulting in the temporary closure of some pharmacies.
"The current restrictions around seven day furlough for anybody who is a close contact or a positive case is putting an enormous strain on our resources," Mr Fell said.
"Staff availability is horrific, and certainly in Ballarat things are only going to get worse before they get better."
Ballarat Health Services said vaccine bookings for children at the state-run Mercure vaccination hub were essential and that no walk-ins for children or adults seeking a booster would be available from Monday.
Boosters would, however, be offered to eligible parents attending a booked appointment with their child.
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