Call to make Hutt St Centre the heart of Adelaide homeless vaccination plan

The Premier is being urged to make the Hutt St Centre the heart of its vaccination “outreach” as the Opposition warns plans for vulnerable people are lacking.

New “outreach programs” to immunise homeless people against Covid-19 are planned as South Australia tops 400,000 vaccination jabs.

Premier Steven Marshall said work to vaccinate homeless people is being planned, amid calls to make the Hutt St Centre a hub.

Hutt Street Centre chief executive Chris Burns says the centre is ready to become a vaccination hub for the homeless and the Opposition is calling on the government to make it so.

“Hutt St Centre is ready and willing to help rollout COVID-19 vaccines to people experiencing homelessness in South Australia,” Mr Burns said.

Chris Burns CEO of the Hut Street Centre gives a blanket to a client. Picture: Mark Brake

“Hutt St Centre is one of many local service providers that can help rollout this important undertaking of providing vaccines to our most vulnerable. We are ready to go, and have been for some time – all South Australians deserve access to these protections.”

Opposition human services spokeswoman Nat Cook said there was no “clear path” to vaccinate the homeless.

“These vulnerable South Australians are more likely to come trust the case workers they know in order to get the vaccine in the first place, let alone the follow up jab.

“It makes sense to use existing services, with runs on the boards and who already have connections with the homeless community.”

However, Mr Marshall said work is already underway to vaccinate homeless people.

“We are making some inroads in regards to people who are experiencing homelessness,” he said.

“We do need to make more progress, and there will be more outreach programs — there are going to be further outreach programs in coming weeks.”

South Australia had three new case of Covid-19 on Saturday, all reported from a medi-hotel, bringing the state total to 774 cases.

The new cases are two women, one aged in her 50s and one aged in her 30s, and one teenage male.

All have acquired their infection overseas and have been in medi-hotels since their arrival. All are considered to have old infections however have been added to SA’s case numbers as they were not diagnosed or counted overseas.

SA now has recorded 407,613 vaccinations and Mr Marshall urged the public to “roll up your sleeve” and not become complacent.

He said the government continues to review when it is suitable to expand the criteria for the free vaccinations including for those aged 16-to-39 in the metropolitan area.

“We can’t become complacent because of the quality of life we are enjoying,” Mr Marshall said.