‘Premier, the Northern Rivers is getting tested, now where are our Pfizer vaccines?’

Labour and government MPs are now criticising the lack of vaccines available to Northern NSW residents.

Despite assurances from the NSW Premier, Northern Rivers residents who qualify are still unable to book Pfizer Covid vaccinations.

On July 28, the state government redirected thousands of Pfizer Covid vaccine doses allocated to regional and rural NSW to Year 12 students in Sydney.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian did not reveal how many doses were redirected, and if any specific regional areas were most affected by the decision.

On Thursday, the NSW premier said all those doses had been returned to regional NSW areas.

“All of those vaccines have already been returned,” she said.

“I want to assure communities that we are making available all the vaccines that we have available, and I really want to thank communities for responding.

“The uptake in vaccines in NSW has been outstanding in the last week.”

But the Northern NSW Local health District was “currently unable” to book Pfizer vaccinations.

The district‘s website stated on Thursday there were no Pfizer vaccine bookings available in the area.

“We are currently unable to take any new Pfizer bookings at the Northern NSW Local Health District Covid vaccination clinics. Bookings are available for AstraZeneca vaccinations,” it said. ”

“Please visit the eligibility checker at health.gov.au to find alternative vaccination clinics in your area.”

The earliest time a or a Lismore resident was eligible to receive Pfizer, according to the eligibility checker on the Australian Government’s website, was at Southport on the Gold Coast in two days, or at the Tweed Heads Superclinic in seven days.

Tweed MP Geoff Provest said the state was not getting enough information about Covid vaccines.

“This has been one of the problems all the way along,” Mr Provest said.

“We’re not really told what stockpiles, what rollouts (the Federal Government) has got.”

“We had diversion of Pfizer shots to Sydney for schoolchildren in hot spot areas and promised any catch ups will occur within two weeks.

“But I’m continually getting complaints from members of the public that they can’t get the shot, they’ve got to wait lengthy periods.

“There’s a lot of fault with our Federal Government in terms of information.”

He said frontline health staff were not to blame.

“It’s hard enough to convince people they should get it,” he said.

“The supply issue is a major concern.”

He welcomed the announcement that Australia would be receiving the Moderna vaccine but said he had no further information on if, or when, it would be available on the North Coast.

Lismore MP Janelle Saffin also criticised the situation.

“The state government had some of our Pfizer in their clinics and they have since sent them back,” Ms Saffin said.

“Regarding the Moderna vaccine, at this stage we are waiting on the Federal Government to advise us.”

Ms Saffin said she would welcome tougher regulations regarding visitors to the region to prevent contamination.

“A ring of steel around Sydney would make our regions safer.” she said.

Covid swab and sewer tests

In the meantime, Covid testing rates had increased in the area in the wake of the lockdown measures imposed on Monday.

Testing rates for the different Northern Rivers LGAs in the last four weeks were:

• Ballina: 4594 (103 per 1000 residents)
• Byron Bay: 4352 (124 per 1000 residents)
• Clarence valley: 3760 (73 per 1000 residents)
• Coffs Harbour: 9315 (121 per 1000 residents)
• Kyogle: 481 (55 per 1000 residents)
• Lismore: 4806 (110 per 1000 residents)
• Richmond Valley: 2778 (118 per 1000 residents)
• Tenterfield: 284 (43 per 1000 residents)
• Tweed: 8761 (90 per 1000 residents)

This number was expected to increase in coming days given the new pop-up testing facilities open recently across the area.

No positive results have been detected recently from sewerage surveillance on the Northern Rivers.

According to NSW Health’s website, there were sewer tests done in Ballina on August 2 and 9, in Lismore on August 4, Lennox Head on August 3, Bangalow on August 10, Byron Bay in August 3 and 10, Mullumbimby on July 23, Ocean Shores on August 3 and 10.

On the Tweed, Hastings Point Murwillumbah, Kingscliff and Banora Point were all tested on August 3.