Hello and welcome to your latest Covid Vaccination Hub Bulletin.
Our Vaccination Hub continues to do a fantastic job! Over 337,000 vaccinations have now been recorded at sites across the Hub. See the graph below showing weekly activity.
To ensure the greatest coverage of the West Metro area we commenced an additional outreach vaccination service in the Wyndham Civic Centre yesterday. The impact of vaccine supply from the Commonwealth means this will be an AstraZeneca only service in the short term.
An additional high volume site, occupying the disused Bunnings at Woodgrove in Melton, is currently being established. The high volume site is likely to open at the beginning of August.
A reminder that the Pfizer vaccine is now available for first dose for all people irrespective of age in the following priority groups:
- all health care workers
- all hotel quarantine and border workers
- household contacts (aged 16 years and over) of hotel quarantine workers
- residential aged and disability care workers and residents.
All eligible people are encouraged to call the Victorian Coronavirus Hotline on 1800 675 398 to book their appointment or book via the online booking portal.
Please ensure you have your second dose of vaccine. You are not optimally protected against COVID-19 without 2 doses. This is more important than ever with episodes of outbreaks of the highly infectious Delta strain occurring within Australia, including currently in Victoria. Please do not delay.
On 13 July the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) released updated advice about the optimal time between the two doses of COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca in an outbreak setting. This advice was in outbreak situations an interval of between 4 and 8 weeks is preferred. For Pfizer, it is still recommended that you get your second dose at 3-6 weeks.
A survey will be sent around early next week to all staff we currently have documented as not vaccinated. We know that in many cases staff will have been vaccinated elsewhere, so this quick survey is designed to capture this and ensure that records are up to date and accurate.
Thank you to staff for feedback on some of the challenges you have been experiencing with the use of the Multi-deck Car Park for members of the public visiting the Sunshine Hospital Vaccination Hub. From Tuesday 20 July 2021, car parking for public attending the Hub will be provided within the adjoining Ace car park. Click here to read more.
Finally, the COVID Vaccination Hub is working closely with Community Health Services to ensure we are providing COVID vaccine access to our most vulnerable, marginalised and hard-to-reach members of the community.
Check out the COVID-19 Vaccination microsite to keep up to date with everything relating to the COVID-19 vaccination.
Regards,
Shane Crowe
Executive Director Nursing & Midwifery
Vaccination Activity
A weekly graph of vaccination activity across our Vaccination Hub has been developed and placed on the front page of the vaccination site. The latest graph shows that at 11 July 2021, second vaccine doses have hit the 100,000 milestone!
Top 3 Questions
In this week’s Commonwealth Department of Health video, Dr Lucas De Toca answers the following questions:
- Why you need to get tested even if you only have mild cold and flu symptoms?
- What are the key things you need to know if you have to quarantine?
- Why the COVIDSafe behaviours are still important – even in those who are vaccinated?