When North Coast could reach 70 per cent fully vaccination rate

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A path to freedom is clearing for people on the North Coast as more people become fully vaccinated against Covid.

Based on current vaccination rates, the state government’s 70 per cent full vaccination milestone could be reached in some North Coast communities in the next two months.

But others could be more than twice as far away.

Analysis of the vaccination figures by postcode released by NSW Health show that on average across the past month, most postcodes across the area have increased their percentage of people vaccinated by 20 per cent.

On current trends, the Maclean and Evans Head communities will hit that mark in about a month, well ahead of the average of the rest of the area.

Maclean Advantage Pharmacy owner Aaron Coffey said residents had been keen to get their jabs at his pharmacy.

“We’ve been doing the Covid vaccination for around four weeks,” Mr Coffey said.

“The first day we did around 104 here, and at Iluka Pharmacy we did 150 on their first day.”

Mr Coffey said he had a waiting list of 100 people wishing to get the AstraZeneca vaccine, with staff availability the limiting factor in how many people they could vaccinate.

He said there was a common motivation among the people his team was vaccinating.

“I don’t think they’re doing it because they’re scared of getting Covid … I think they’re doing it because they want to get life back to normal,” he said.

“It’s more a fact of let’s get this done and get it over with.”

Advantage Pharmacy owner Aaron Coffey’s team has been administering the AstraZeneca jab at Maclean and Iluka for the past month. Picture: Adam Hourigan

While habitually vaccine-hesitant areas around Byron Bay and Mullumbimby show low vaccination rates, the area around Grafton is also falling behind targets.

Those areas are reporting only 20-29 per cent of their eligible population being double vaccinated, with only a 10 per cent increase in those double vaccinated across the month.

Grafton has had a rush of people getting their first jab though, with a jump of more than 30 per cent being vaccinated for the first time, joining areas around Ballina with similar increases.

On the Mid North Coast, the already strong figures from the Urunga area with 40-49 per cent of the population vaccinated are trending towards about 1.5 months before they reach the benchmark.

A spokesman for Healthy North Coast the organisation washopeful the region would reach the target by the end of the year.

“It’s great that we now have positive projections for vaccine supply but reaching the target will depend also on the community continuing to respond as positively as they have done to date,” he said.

He said Pfizer vaccine supplies were set to significantly increase from mid-September onwards, with an initial doubling of general practice doses from 10,000 to more than 20,000 a week expected.

“Local Pfizer vaccine supplies will be tripled by October to more than 30,000 doses per week,” he said.

“AstraZeneca vaccines, recommended for those aged 60-plus, are still readily available.”

The government laid out its road map to freedom on Thursday, releasing regional areas from lockdown, but also with stern warnings about what the road map would look like.

“I cannot stress enough how important it is for people to get vaccinated – if you have not had both doses of the vaccine by the time we hit the 70 per cent milestone, you will not be able to take advantage of these freedoms,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“Those that are unvaccinated at 70 per cent will have no additional freedoms.

“This is about vaccinated people, vaccinated businesses being able to open up again.”