Ballarat coronavirus vaccine: Details on and where for rollout

Up to 400 Ballarat aged care residents are set to get their first COVID-19 vaccinations as the rollout in the state’s west begins. Find out when you can get the jab.

A bottle of Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine.

Up to 400 Ballarat public aged-care residents are set to get their first COVID-19 vaccinations from Monday as the rollout in the state’s west begins.

Ballarat Health Services chief executive Dale Fraser announced on Friday those classed in the priority Phase 1A group — about 2000 in the regional city — would start receiving their Pfizer jabs.

“250,000 people in the region, two vaccinations each … this is a herculean project of many hundreds of thousands of people to be done in a short space of time,” he said.

“The vaccine is safe, the vaccine is not compulsory.

“This is our way out of what we’ve seen for the last 12 months, this is worldwide, we just encourage people to think carefully about whether you wish to or not to have the vaccine.”

Mr Fraser said three “mass vaccination” centres would be established in Ballarat, Ararat and Horsham.

“That will be the majority of where Ballarat will get their care from … hopefully get through as much product as we can as quickly as we can for those who elect to have the vaccination,” he said.

There will also be mobile services for people unable to access those sites.

Mr Fraser said all vaccinators were registered and trained specialists who had undergone additional COVID training.

“We’ve taken additional steps and we’ve got a trained professional group that have been through the training and have gone through a rigorous process of selection prior to being involved in these programs,” he said.

After the initial 400 doses arrive in Ballarat, about 1000 a week will be made available until the rollout intensifies.

The Pfizer vaccine needs to be kept below -70C.

Grampians Public Health Unit clinical director Rosemary Aldrich said the process of the vaccine arriving, to its administration, would be heavily monitored.

“This is a very safe vaccine, we’ve had little to no evidence, from over 200 million doses given worldwide, that people need worry about this vaccine,” she said.

“We’ve always had in Australia a rigorous process for assessing the efficacy of our vaccines through the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

“It’s been a lot of work, very precise work … our community can have confidence.”