An extra 4,000 appointments per week will be available at ACT Government mass vaccination clinics from Monday in anticipation of an increase in Pfizer supply, Minister for Health Rachel Stephen-Smith said today.
From Monday 26 July, the Garran and airport mass vaccination clinics will provide an additional 4,000 vaccine appointments per week, enabling the weekly delivery of more than 14,000 Pfizer vaccines across the two clinics. An additional 2,500 a week at Garran and 1,500 at the airport.
The Minister for Health said the additional appointments will be made possible due to improved workflow through the facilities.
The process is being streamlined by moving people through to a second waiting room for their 15-minute post-vaccination monitoring period.
“You’ll reduce that wait time in the chair while you continue to be monitored, but then moved to a waiting area for the remainder of the 15 minutes,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
Half (2,000) of these additional appointments will be reserved for healthcare, residential aged care and residential disability care workers.
Since opening registrations to 30–39-year-olds earlier this week, more than 8,500 registered to make an appointment when bookings open to them.
Minister for Health Rachel Stephen-Smith said she’s happy to see Canberrans continue to be “really enthusiastic” about getting vaccinated.
More than 43% of the ACT’s adult population has had at least one jab with around 20% fully vaccinated, both numbers higher than national rates.
116,492 doses have been administered across ACT Government vaccination clinics.
As of Tuesday 22 July, just under 10.5 million doses have been administered nationally.
Just over 36 percent of Australians aged 16 and over have had their first dose, 14.5 percent have had two.
There have been recent reports of people had been arriving at ACT Government vaccination clinics the end of the day to swoop in on any missed appointments.
Ms Stephen-Smith discouraged the public from turning up to vaccination clinics without a booking.
“There is no end of the day ruse to come and take a dose that someone didn’t turn up to take,” she said
“We do use all of our doses, it’s managed very carefully, we do have basically zero wastage in our centres … those doses just aren’t available.”
PM ‘sorry’ vaccine rollout targets missed
The ACT’s vaccine rollout ramp-up comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison today apologised for the national vaccine rollout not meeting its targets.
The rollout started almost five months ago but the government has been forced to dump multiple targets it set for itself, including completing the program by October.
I’m sorry that we haven’t been able to achieve the marks that we had hoped for at the beginning of this year – of course I am,” Mr Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
Conversely, Ms Stephen-Smith said the Territory’s ACT vaccine rollout is moving well as they deliver “as many vaccinations as we have supply”.
“There are always appointments available within a few days if you want to get an AstraZeneca vaccination and we have a very high proportion of our eligible population vaccinated,” she said.
Older Canberrans are confidence in AstraZeneca in the older age groups, with “well over 85% of people aged 70 and up” having had their first dose.
With regard to Pfizer vaccines the ACT is “using the supply available”.
“I think our data shows that in the ACT we’re doing incredibly well in getting those jabs into arms,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
The ACT Minister for Health criticised the PM for sending “mixed messages” to Australians aged 60+ that “if they wait, they will get Pfizer.
“That’s certainly something people have raised with me, they feel as though they might as well wait because Pfizer will become available, and their second dose will not be much later than if they had,” she said.
With AAP
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