Covid vaccine Qld: NRL finals tickets to give away in vax push

Free tickets to this weekend’s NRL finals are on offer to those who line up for a Pfizer shot today, while those at the games will also have access to vaccination.

Free tickets to this weekend’s NRL finals are on offer to those who get their Pfizer shot, in a footy fever vaccine push featuring pop-up clinics at games in the race to protect the state.

Two thousand double passes to Friday’s preliminary final face-off between the Manly Sea Eagles and South Sydney Rabbitohs will be given away at Boondall’s Brisbane Entertainment Centre and a new walk-in hub opening at the Pinkenba cruise ship terminal on Thursday.

A further 1000 double passes to Saturday’s Melbourne Storm and Penrith Panthers showing will be up for grabs for those who get jabbed on Friday at the Logan Entertainment Centre and Mt Warren Park Sports Centre.

It’s one of a suite of new measures to boost protection rates even further, including a pop-up vaccination hub at Suncorp Stadium for the preliminary finals and grand final on October 3.

Four clinics have also started accepting walk-ins and the government has confirmed it will hold another “Super Pfizer Weekend”, most likely in early October, to leverage off the astounding success of last weekend’s.

Suncorp Stadium will light up with a new LED lighting system for the finals. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said people must protect themselves now, before Covid inevitably crossed into Queensland.

“I want to see as many Queenslanders as possible getting vaccinated,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“As an added incentive, the first few thousand at select vaccination hubs on Thursday and Friday will also get free tickets to the NRL finals.

“This is all part of our effort to encourage vaccination uptake, which is why we’ve opened up our Caboolture, Doomben, Kippa-Ring, Boondall and Pinkenba hubs to walk-ins.”

The hub at Boondall, Kippa-Ring and Doomben Racecourse will operate seven days a week from 8.30am, while the clinic at Caboolture will operate Monday to Saturday.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said she hoped the free finals tickets would score higher vaccination rates.

“So get vaccinated in the coming days at one of our eligible vaccination hubs and give yourself a chance to be part of NRL history,” she said.

Great grandmother Beryl Irwin is on her way to being fully vaccinated after receiving her first Pfizer jab at a Nundah clinic on Wednesday.

The 99-year-old was escorted by her son Robert Irwin to the Nundah Village Family Practise and said “that didn’t hurt at all” as she leaving.

Beryl Irwin is a 99-year-old great grandmother from Brisbane’s Everton Park. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Mr Irwin, 69, who is fully vaccinated himself, said that over the past 35 years his mother has survived breast cancer, a heart-attack and an aggressive skin cancer on her nose that had moved towards her brain.

“Mum does not want to be another Covid statistic – she wants to just be an old age statistic.”

Meanwhile, hundreds of community pharmacies in Queensland began rolling out the Moderna vaccine yesterday.

A total of 400 pharmacies will share in 80,000 doses of the mRNA jab with capacity to surge next week.

Tara Breusch and Archie Beak, both 12, were the first people to receive the Moderna jab in Queensland, getting their vaccine at the Priceline Pharmacy on George St in the Brisbane CBD.

“This vaccine is important because I want to protect the community and my family … and to my friends and family, I reckon you should all get vaccinated,” Archie said.

The Moderna vaccine, of which Australia has ordered 25m in total, is remarkably similar to the Pfizer jab though the two doses are administered four weeks apart instead of three.

The latest vaccination data shows 61.5 per cent of Queenslanders aged 16 and older have received at least one dose of the jab.

Originally published as Covid vaccine Qld: NRL finals tickets to give away in vax push