Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk urges Ipswich, Logan to get Covid-19 vaccination as rates lag behind other parts of Queensland
Annastacia Palaszczuk urged Ipswich residents to get the Covid-19 vaccine, with vaccination rates in the fastest-growing city in Queensland lagging behind. Authorities say a Delta outbreak is inevitable.
Ipswich
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Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has appealed to residents in the Labor heartland to step up and roll up their sleeves to protect their community, with vaccination rates in Ipswich lagging behind other parts of the state.
Almost 44 per cent of eligible residents in the fastest-growing city in Queensland on the doorstep of the state’s capital are fully vaccinated, with 63.6 per cent having received their first dose.
Those rates are lagging well behind Brisbane, which is sitting at 74.7 per cent for first doses and 55.3 per cent for people that are fully vaccinated. Some regional centres with significantly smaller population bases are also ahead of Ipswich.
Speaking from the community clinic in the Ipswich CBD on Wednesday morning, Ms Palaszczuk said vaccination rates in Ipswich, Logan and Beaudesert were of particular concern.
The clinic has administered more than 46,000 doses in less than three months since it opened, making up 61 per cent of all jabs delivered by Queensland Health in the West Moreton region.
Queensland recorded no new cases of community transmission on Wednesday but Ms Palaszczuk said more people in Ipswich needed to come forward and get vaccinated to reduce the impacts of an inevitable Delta outbreak.
Despite being part of snap lockdowns in the southeast over the past year, Ipswich has so far avoided any community transmission of the virus.
Appointments at the huge Ipswich clinic located in the site of the former Harvey Norman store in the mall are being left empty, with some local leaders and health professionals saying complacency was behind our slow response.
“The Delta strain will come here into Queensland,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“We need to get our vaccination rates up as high as possible before we have those outbreaks here.
“Here in Ipswich they’re doing 1000 doses a day. They can get up to 1500 doses. If you’re living in Ipswich, of course you can go to your local GP or you can go to your pharmacy.
“There’s no excuse why you can’t come in here and get your vaccine. I really need you to come out and get vaccinated. We went down to Logan where our vaccination rates were low, now they’ve come up a bit as well.”
The Check In Qld app now has a ‘get your vaccine’ link to find the nearest location to get the jab.
The Ipswich CBD clinic is open seven days a week and has a lot of capacity for walk-ins, Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said.
“It’s never been easier to get a vaccination,” she said.
“It is absolutely critical that you start getting your first vaccine now because it’s going to be at last five weeks until you have that full protection.
“We also know (the virus is) just on our border.”
Chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said there was “lots and lots of capacity” in Ipswich for residents to get their jab.
“It’s really important that everyone who lives in this area comes forward and gets vaccinated as soon as possible,” she said.
“You’ve got one of the best public health units in the state who has done a really, really good job managing the virus until now.
“It won’t be long (until) we will see the Delta variant come in and it won’t be able to be controlled.
“The only control will be the number of people who are vaccinated. I can’t think that there’s anything more important than getting vaccinated as soon as possible.”
Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding said the city had been fortunate to avoid community transmission of the virus but it was only a “matter of time”.
The council is charging the State Government $1 to rent out the space for its CBD clinic.
“Our vaccination rates are lower than the state average and certainly lower than the national average,” she said.
“I think (Ms Palaszczuk) is doing what a premier does and that is highlight areas where there is concern.
“The fact that the premier came out here does show the concern at a state level of our vaccination rates.”
Bundamba MP Lance McCallum believed a personal plea from the premier in a city which has long been a Labor stronghold would cut through.
Local Labor MPs invited her to Ipswich in an effort to boost vaccination rates.
“We can do more and we should do more,” he said.
TerryWhite Chemmart owner and pharmacist Bob Slater received his first batch of Moderna vaccine doses in the middle of September.
He said the take up of the AstraZeneca vaccine to date had been fairly flat.
“We’re flat out (with Moderna),” he said.
“I’d say probably a tenfold increase on AstraZeneca.
“People have more confidence in (Moderna) which is unfortunate because AstraZeneca is fine. There’s nothing wrong with it. I had it. Todd, my son (and fellow pharmacist), had it.
“People consistently do research online so they’re confident in it.”
An initial 300 Moderna doses were quickly bolstered by another 500 due to the huge demand at the CBD pharmacy.
“AstraZeneca hasn’t been taken up as I expected,” Mr Slater said.
“We haven’t thrown any AstraZeneca out. The (CBD clinic next door) has been very good, they’ve taken some excess we had.
“We think we’ll get through most of what we’ve been sent. The clinic if they get someone for AstraZeneca and they haven’t got any open vials they’ll send them down to us, which is excellent as we’re all working together. That’s got to be the way to do it.”
Mr Slater believed the lagging local vaccinations rates were down to complacency.
“I think it’s a lot to do with Ipswich people feeling safe,” he said.
“In the last outbreak Ipswich wasn’t included as one of the local government areas (of concern). I think it’s simply because there’s a bit of complacency.
“We talk to people quite a lot and you’ll get a fair few people during the day we have to have a conversation with them. The majority of cases we can allay their fears.
“This morning we had a big, strong fella who said he wasn’t going to have it then looked at the Moderna and said he was going to have it.
“People need to have the vaccine. It’s the only way forward to open things up.”
Read more stories by Lachlan McIvor here.
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