Big change to NSW Covid-19 vaccine rollout
NSW Health authorities have made a big change to their risk assessment of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The AstraZeneca vaccine will now be available to anyone over the age of 40 at mass vaccination hubs across New South Wales.
Dr Kerry Chant said on Monday the “current risk situation has changed dramatically”, and has given NSW Health vaccination clinics and centres the green light to give the vaccine to anyone aged over 40.
Pharmacies will soon be able to administer the doses as well.
Last month the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation changed their advice to say the Pfizer vaccine is preferred for anyone under the age of 60, due to very rare cases of blood clotting linked to AstraZeneca.
But on Monday, as NSW recorded a mammoth 112 new community cases of Covid-19, Dr Chant said the Delta variant had changed everything.
“The AstraZeneca discussion, we have always felt best to have with a health professional that understands your clinical background and circumstances. Your GP fits that mould,” she said.
“...Under the current situation, because we actually have Covid and the Delta strain circulating, it then means that your individual risk of acquiring the strain is very much different than it would have been a month or so ago when the community risk would have been very low.”
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Three new vaccination centres will open from next week, in order to quickly ramp up the state’s inoculation rates.
A centre in Belmont, Lake Macquarie will open on Monday, capable of administering 20,000 doses per week.
A Sydney CBD clinic will also open next Monday, able to administer 7000 vaccinations each week.
By the end of July, a mas vaccination centre at Macquarie Fields will open, with the capacity to administer 20,000 doses each week, and a Wollongong centre will open in August, able to dole out 15,000 vaccines a week.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the state was in an “absolutely critical phase of this disease”.
“All of us want to get out of this lockdown as soon as we can. All of us want to reduce the stress we are feeling, and the future is in our hands,” she said.