By Oliver Lees
Demand for vaccines has soared in Sunbury and the Macedon Ranges as Victorians come to terms with another coronavirus lockdown.
Brooke Street Medical Centre, Kyneton Medical Centre and Central Highlands Rural Health have all reported an increased number of bookings following the announcement of the seven-day circuit breaker lockdown, which has since been extended to 14 days.
Kyneton Medical Centre practice manager Peter Hanrahan said after noticing some hesitancy to vaccinate from his patient cohort, the most recent lockdown has created a “sharp increase” in bookings to get the jab.
“We recently activated specific COVID-19 vaccination only online bookings which has helped our reception staff with the volume of phone calls to book appointments,” Mr Hanrahan said.
“We are currently booked out for the next seven to 10 working days with regard to availability for the AstraZeneca vaccinations.
“However, we are publishing more appointments as quickly as we reasonably can to meet the increased demand.”
Central Highlands Rural Health will be expanding its COVID-19 vaccination centre to meet demand.
The expanded site, which is expected to open to the public by mid to late June, will open its doors to people phases 1a, 1b and 2a of the vaccine roll-out, including those over 40 and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
Central Highlands Rural Health chief executive Maree Cuddihy said the clinic will have a smaller supply compared with larger vaccination hubs.
“We will be running a very small community vaccine clinic initially – most likely on a Tuesday morning,” Ms Cuddihy said.
“We’re still seeing huge numbers of people for COVID-19 swabbing and we need to be able to continue to offer this very important service to our community.
Both Brooke Street Medical Centre and Kyneton Medical Centre indicated they currently had no concerns with the number of vaccines that had been supplied.
According to research database Our World in Data, approximately 2.1 per cent of Australia’s 25 million population had been vaccinated as of Friday, June 4.
Star Weekly can confirm that following lengthy delays to the vaccination of residents at Japara Goonawarra Aged Care, all residents have now received their second dose of the jab.
But resident Jack Ogilvie said residents remained concerned that some staff members were still yet to be vaccinated.
“It’s really a perfect storm, because the staff recently had a flu injection and now they have to wait two weeks before they can have a COVID jab,” Mr Ogilvie said.
For more information, visit the Department of Health website: www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines
