More pop-up or walk-in clinics could be rolled out in the ACT in a bid to boost coronavirus vaccine rates among young people.
The ACT government is considering all options after people aged between 20 and 24 were revealed as having the lowest take-up rate for the vaccine.
First-dose rates for 20 to 24-year-olds exceed 74 per cent.
But more than 84 per cent of 12 to 15-year-olds have received their first jab, just over a month after that age group became eligible.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said work was being done on targeting more people in the 20 to 24 age bracket.
Ms Stephen-Smith said getting messages to young men who did not look at government social media was important.
“We’re doing work to see how we can better target that age group and look at the gender breakdown to see whether it’s young men or young women or both,” she said.
Despite the relatively low take-up, vaccine rates among 20 to 24-year-olds in the ACT are the second highest in the country, only behind NSW.
The ACT reported 40 new COVID cases on Friday, the majority of which were linked.
There were no new cases linked to a cluster at a special care nursery at Canberra’s Centenary Hospital for Women and Children.
The cluster stands at five, including two babies, with investigations ongoing as to how the outbreak started.
As the ACT enters its final week in lockdown, there is still growing uncertainty for residents in communities near the border when NSW eases its own COVID restrictions on Monday.
While exemptions are in place for travel to some cross-border communities, Ms Stephen-Smith said the ACT was looking at expanding regional travel limits.
“The team has been thinking about how we would look at a slightly wider region than the postcodes we’ve identified and whether we relax some level of travel restriction,” she said.
Tourism activities or day-trips are not being considered as part of the potential relaxed restrictions but people being allowed to visit families is under discussion.
The ACT’s lockdown is set to end on October 15.
AAP
