Covid vaccines will be available in drive-thru clinics across Australia by November

Vaccine hubs will be set up areas with Covid outbreaks and low vaccination rates to ensure no community is left behind.

Vaccine hubs in places of worship, pop-up clinics in workplaces and targeted advertising will be used to increase take-up of Covid-19 jabs to ensure communities aren’t left behind.

Remote NSW and parts of Sydney, including the southwest, will be the focus of renewed vaccination efforts, while critical industries required to keep the city functioning during lockdown are also being prioritised.

Special “in-reach” vaccine teams are being deployed to supermarket and food distribution centres, while a drive-thru clinic strategy is available to any state wishing to take up the option.

The community has become familiar with drive-thru Covid-19 testing sites — next there may be driv-thru vaccination sites. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Covid-19 task force leader Lieutenant General John Frewen said the federal government would use data showing where vaccinations were lagging to readjust the rollout and combat areas with higher hesitancy or logistics problems.

“We will increasingly become aware of where there may be pockets of hesitancy or even where some parts of the country are moving more slowly than others,” he said.

“It is important we get consistent vaccination across the country concurrently so we will now be … working to make sure that we can provide additional assistance to those areas that need it.”

Data released this week showed the Far West and Orana region of NSW had the state’s lowest vaccination rate with just 13.4 per cent of eligible adults having received both doses, followed by the Hunter area with 14.1 per cent and southwest Sydney with 14.6 per cent.

Lt Gen Frewen said messages would specifically be tailored for “culturally and linguistically diverse groups,” particularly where Covid-19 rates were very high.

“We are seeing things happen in southwest Sydney, where we are working with community leaders down there, a campaign focused in both (vaccine) hubs and mosques down there,” he said.

Lieutenant General John Frewen, who is heading up Operation Covid Shield. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Lt Gen Frewen said federal authorities were currently working through food distribution hubs in NSW, having already vaccinated Foodbank workers, and were now focusing on Coles and Woolworths warehouse employees.

He said the NSW government had agreed to lead the vaccination of supermarket store workers.

Plans for drive-thru vaccination hubs have also been finalised, with states now able to volunteer to set up facilities with assistance from the federal government.

“It is an option now … it will really be up to the jurisdictions now to decide if that’s a pathway they would like to take,” he said.

Lt Gen Frewen also reveal the next phase of a national advertising campaign to “rally” Australians to get the vaccine when supplies dramatically increase in the next two months.

DRIVE-THROUGH VACCINE HUB PLAN UNVEILED

Earlier this week, Lt Gen Frewen outlined the plan for drive-through vaccine hubs to be rolled out across the country from next month to dramatically improve access.

He said retail shops and workplaces had also been flagged as vaccine sites, with pilot programs expected to start in mid-October and large-scale operations running by late ­November.

Even schools would become vaccine hubs under Lieutenant-General John Frewen’s Operation Covid Shield plan, unveiled on Monday night.

Pending health officials granting 12- to 15-year-olds ­access to the Pfizer vaccine, school programs are expected to be ready by early December.

Drive-through vaccine hubs will be organised in the coming weeks, with the first pilots due in mid-September, before Lt Frewen plans to have them “operating at scale in most ­jurisdictions” in October.

The plan estimates Australia could reach 70 per cent ­vaccination as early as November, and 80 per cent of the population by December.

At each of these points ­restrictions would be considerably eased, including reopening of international travel for vaccinated Australians and an end to “strict” lockdowns.

In an attempt to reach more multicultural communities where English is a second language, the federal Government will look at providing vaccines through hubs like places of worship.

The ramp up in vaccine sites will coincide with an expected increase in the availability of Pfizer jabs, with enough doses due to arrive in Australia to open up access for all over-30s from September 1. Marketing will increase, with direct messaging in newsletters, email and text messages to be used alongside traditional TV, radio, print and online.

Originally published as Covid vaccines will be available in drive-thru clinics across Australia by November