Clarence Valley to get first round of COVID-19 jabs

The first batch of COVID-19 vaccinations will be administered to frontline health and aged care workers next week.

Doctor giving a senior woman a vaccination

Frontline health care and aged care workers in the Clarence Valley will be among the first to roll up their sleeves and get the COVID-19 vaccination next week.

Healthy North Coast (formerly North Coast Primary Health Network, the primary health organisation connected to Federal Department of Health) chief executive, Julie Sturgess, confirmed today that the roll out will begin across the region, which covers from the Queensland border to south of Port Macquarie and includes the Clarence Valley, next week.

"The first COVID-19 vaccinations for the 1A group will be administered next week," she said.

"Those receiving the first phase of the vaccine will be people with the highest rate of suffering an adverse reaction from COVID, including frontline health and aged care and quarantine border workers.

"There are around 500,000 people in this area and as there are two shots needed this means over 1 million doses will be needed.

"Healthcare Australia who have a great deal of experience in the vaccination of aged care residents will undertake this."

Ms Sturgess said the next group to be vaccinated will comprises those in in the 1B group and include; Elderly adults aged over 70, other health care workers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, younger adults with an underlying medical condition, including those with a disability, critical and high risk workers including defence, police, fire, emergency services and meat processing workers.

Ms Sturgess said a recent call for expressions of interest from medical practices in in the region to be involved in administering vaccinations has been very positive.

"We have had 113 medical practices from across our catchment respond to our expression of interest and request for their model of how they would cope," she said.

"We have the capacity in our region to handle the vaccination levels required, although this is of course reliant on the availability of the vaccine, but we are not concerned about this."

Ms Sturgess said the only delay in vaccinations would be if there was an outbreak of COVID-19, then naturally vaccinations would be concentrated in that area.

She said the NCH is working closely with the Local Health Districts.

"While the Commonwealth Government is taking the lead in the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, we work extremely closely with the LHDs and their public health units," she said.

"We give them lots of local advice and keep clinicians updated and the educated around the latest news around vaccinations."

Originally published as Clarence Valley to get first round of COVID-19 jabs