Search the 120 low vax towns and suburbs on SA Health’s high priority list

A “pandemic of the unvaccinated” is feared for towns and suburbs on SA Health’s priority list – but there are plans to get the rollout up to speed in vaccine-hesitant areas.

A new vaccine hit squad will target some of South Australia’s worst Covid-19 jab hot spots to stop a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”, the state’s top doctor has warned.

Amid new concerns about vulnerable country areas, SA Health this week will launch special mobile and pop-up vaccine clinics in 30 postcodes, covering almost 120 priority suburbs across swathes of ­Adelaide and the Hills.

The operation ramped up as community leaders raised concerns about Covid vulnerabilities in Far North communities, especially people who lived ­adjacent to the state’s biggest mining operation.

Large swathes of rural SA, WA and Queensland have local government areas where fewer than 40 per cent of people have had one jab.

SEARCH TO SEE IF YOUR SUBURB IS ONE OF THE 120 PRIORITY AREAS

Australia’s worst performing council area is Grant, around Mount Gambier where only 14.2 per cent people have been vaccinated and 5.5 per cent are fully protected.

The commonwealth breakdown shows Burnside, Mitcham, Unley, Holdfast Bay and Adelaide Hills council areas were the most fully vaccinated.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said vaccination was the best way to protect everyone.

“This new data will turbocharge our vaccination rollout, giving us the ability to direct support to communities that need help,” Mr Morrison said.

The SA Health pop-up clinics for Pfizer will target areas with lower-than-average vaccination rates, including some of the state’s most disadvantaged. Patients aged up to 59 must book.

Most of the lowest vaccination figures are in the northern suburbs, such as Davoren Park, Elizabeth and Munno Para, where about one in four adults have had one shot.

SEARCH YOUR SUBURB’S VACCINATION RATE

Teams will target areas from Andrews Farm, Salisbury and Parafield in the north to Holden Hill and Valley View in the northeast, to Woodville, Findon and Seaton in Adelaide’s west.

They will also visit southern areas including Christie Downs, Hackham, Onkaparinga Hills and Noarlunga.

The rollout, which has come under fire for being among the nation’s slowest, has fully vaccinated a third of SA adults, and more than half have had one dose.

Chief public health officer, Nicola Spurrier said the NSW outbreak showed anyone, of any age, could get very sick with the highly infectious Delta strain.

“To prevent as much as possible a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’ we are investigating every opportunity to get the Covid-19 vaccine out to South Australians,” she said.

“Some areas of priority have been identified across … Adelaide that currently have lower than average vaccination rates.

“We can all work arm-in-arm to roll up and get vaccinated to protect ourselves, our loved ones and our community from this sneaky virus.”

She said the new clinics would be managed by the Northern, Southern and Central local health networks.

This will “enhance our vaccination efforts in these areas, aiming take the vaccine ­directly to people and make it as easy as possible to support everybody to be vaccinated”, Professor Spurrier said.

Next week Adelaide’s biggest vaccination clinic at Wayville will double in size.

Federal health data presented to national cabinet on Friday showed SA and WA were the most vulnerable to an outbreak due to low jab rates.

Premier Steven Marshall and chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Separate SA Health heatmaps showed the lagging areas were Karoonda in the Murraylands near Tailem Bend, and Verdun, in the Hills, along with Far North towns Leigh Creek, Maree and Marla.

The breakdown also reveals poor vaccination rates in major regional areas such as Port Lincoln, Port Pirie and Roxby Downs, which is close to BHP’s Olympic Dam mine.

Roxby Council chief executive Roy Blight said a local roundtable of community and health leaders had raised concerns about its poor vaccination rate of 14 per cent of adults.

This was fuelled by a lack of supply to a young population – the average local age is 29.

He said the talks raised concerns about a possible outbreak sweeping the area – similar to Broken Hill’s – placing huge strain on its remote health service and putting at risk Olympic Dam operations.

“It is not a matter of vaccine hesitancy,” he said.

“People can’t shop around for another clinic. Driving 600km to Adelaide is not an option.

“We see an urgency in shoring up the situation here. The area is quite vulnerable.”

A BHP spokesman said the mining giant was working with SA Health to “help boost local vaccination rates” by providing a mobile Olympic Dam clinic.

He said it had strict safety measures to maintain community safety and to “keep our operations running.”

On Friday night, SA Health opened up a raft of new local slots. An SA Health spokeswoman said rates would ­increase ahead of an influx of 50,000 Pfizer doses.

In another boost on Saturday, doctors were told the federal government had agreed to a national no-fault vaccination indemnity scheme.

In an industry note, Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid said the no-fault scheme would be retrospective and give patients an alternative to court while it minimised litigation.

Under the new scheme, an injured patient will be able to apply to Services Australia for taxpayer-funded compensation after an expert panel has assessed the claim.

Gluttony in 2019. Picture: Helen Page

Fringe hub wants performers’ vax status

By Matt Gilbertson

Adelaide Fringe hub Gluttony has begun asking artists if they are vaccinated as it moves to program next year’s festival.

“We are starting the process of programming next year’s festival and we are putting in our expression of interest a question asking people if they are vaccinated or if they expect to be vaccinated by Fringe,” Gluttony director Daniel Michael said.

“Some of our artists and staff have already been asking if they will be expected to work in a confined space with people who aren’t, and so we’ve realised it’s not just a conversation between us and the individual, it’s a conversation between the whole group.”

While the legalities surrounding mandatory vaccines are up for debate, Gluttony is encouraging artists and audiences alike to consider the greater good ahead of next year’s festival season.

“It’s complicated and we don’t have the all answers yet,” Mr Michael said.

“We’ve tried to seek advice from Fair Work and it’s unclear to us as to what we’re expected to do and what we’re allowed to do to protect people.

“We’re absolutely encouraging artists to be vaccinated.

“The science is sound and we want our artists and our workers to be safe.

“But also our workforce are going to be in contact with the public in an events setting.

“We would hope that the vast majority of people who work in the arts and events realise that Covid has absolutely destroyed our industry and we would hope that the path to some sort of normality is a high vaccination rate.”

In the US, major event promoter Live Nation recently announced that from October 4, it will require all artists, crew and attendees to show proof of full vaccination or a negative test at their venues.

Originally published as Search the 120 low vax towns and suburbs on SA Health’s high priority list