Logan’s slow vaccination rate has been blamed on ethnicity, communication barriers

Logan has continued to have one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, despite being home to one of the main inoculation hubs and the state sending in extra supplies of Pfizer to the city.

Lining up for a jab at Logan Entertainment Centre. Logan has one of the lowest rates of vaccination in the state.

Logan has continued to have one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, despite being home to one of the main inoculation hubs and the state sending in extra supplies of Pfizer to the city.

The latest data from Queensland Health shows the city had the fourth lowest rate for first vaccinations in the state with 38.8 per cent of eligible residents having their first jab.

That was up from 33 per cent earlier this month and higher than Cherbourg where only 19 per cent had their first jab and behind Central Queensland’s local government area of Isaac where only 23 per cent had their first jab.

Logan Entertainment Centre was commandeered as a vaccination hub in June when free Pfizer jabs were offered to those who registered and met special criteria.

That was extended after further data showed the area was one of the slowest in the state to take up the vaccine.

Logan and Caboolture both received extra supplies of Pfizer vaccine in July after both communities were singled out by the premier as having low inoculation rates.

The federal government was able to get an additional 136,890 doses of Pfizer for Queensland, which were distributed to both centres.

In July, Queensland Health said 43.8 per cent of people across the state had at least one vaccination but in Logan, the rate was only 33.9 per cent. In the Moreton region it was 44.7 per cent.

Some parts of Moreton Bay, such as Caboolture, had lower coverage rates.

“We want to expand the capacity at Logan and Caboolture and across the southeast we want to make sure that our vaccination levels are roughly equal across the southeast,” the premier said at the time.

“We are seeing lower take-up rates in those communities and I want to make sure that we get some of the extra vaccine out to those communities.

“Over the next couple of days we will be ramping up the capacity there.”

Vaccination centres at Logan Entertainment Centre and at Caboolture Square Shopping Centre were making it easier for people in both communities to get vaccinated.

Logan had a lower vaccination rate compared to Redlands, where 53.1 per cent of people have had their first jab.

Bowman MP Andrew Laming said Logan’s lower vaccination rate compared to Redlands could be due to its higher level of ethnicity and higher levels of non-English speaking families.

“A decade ago, Redlands had the lowest non-English speaking proportion of the population of any urban electorate in Australia,” he said.

Caboolture Hospital executive director Angie Dobbrick said Caboolture Hospital had leased a large area in Caboolture Square Shopping Centre to deliver up to 400 COVID-19 vaccinations per day, potentially growing further as more supply from Pfizer becomes available.

In August, the federal government received orders and delivered 20,000 AstraZeneca vaccines to Queensland and more than 640,000 AstraZeneca vaccines to primary care sites in the state.

It delivered 244,660 AstraZeneca vaccines to Queensland and 2.15 million AstraZeneca vaccines to primary care sites.

Redland City Council was unable to comment on claims that the bay islands had low rates of vaccinations and said its role in the response to COVID-19 was to support Queensland Health and the Australian Government’s Primary Health Networks.

Originally published as Logan’s slow vaccination rate has been blamed on ethnicity, communication barriers