More than half a million COVID-19 vaccinations have been administered at ACT public clinics since the first was given a year ago today.

Nikoletta Karagiannidis gave that historic first dose.

“It was all over in a couple of seconds,” she said. “It wasn’t anything that I hadn’t done before.”

But that moment also made her feel “very grateful and proud” to represent ACT Health and all nurses.

Since then, she administered “thousands, definitely thousands” of vaccinations.

Nurses at the AIS Arena COVID-19 mass vaccination clinic celebrated the day with cake and wearing tutus for ‘Twosday’.

“It’s happy birthday for our clinic,” said Cathie O’Neill, Canberra Health Services’ chief operating officer.

“When we set it up 12 months ago, we had no idea how long it was going to go for. There were a lot of unknowns, but we’ve risen to every challenge. And we’re so proud that we are the most vaccinated city in the world.”

And that, she said was because of the CHS team’s “great work”, with the help of hospitals, the AIS, the Canberra Airport Group, and the ACT Health Directorate, among others. 

“In the early days, supply was difficult and not assured,” Ms O’Neill said. “That wasn’t just vaccine; it was also things like the syringes and needles, so there was a lot of day-to-day scrambling, to start with.

“Then we’ve had to rise to all the changes in advice and policies. We’ve done that relatively smoothly in the end, but it has taken a lot of back of back-office work.”

More than 65 per cent of the Canberra population have had their third booster – lower than the 98.6 per cent who are double vaccinated, but still a significant number, Ms O’Neill believes.

“We are still the most boosted jurisdiction in the nation. We’ve led Australia again.”

Some people, she suggests, haven’t had their booster because they’ve been too busy, or because they’ve had COVID-19 and think they might not need it. But Ms O’Neill expects that number to increase now the clinic offers walk-in shots and continues its in-reach programs.

“We’ve achieved a reasonable booster rate,” she said. “Whilst we can do better – and that’s certainly what we’ll aim for – it’s not as if it’s dire.”

The ACT also has the highest number of paediatric vaccinations: 77.6 per cent of children aged 5 to 11 have had their first dose. The Superhero Saturday earlier this month was a great success, the biggest number of children the clinic had seen.

The most immediate challenge for the population, Ms O’Neill believes, will be entering winter and a potential ’flu season, and ensuring that Canberrans get ’flu vaccines as well as the COVID booster shots.

“We will wait for some policy advice on how we can play a role in that.”