AstraZeneca vaccine doses dumped after slow uptake in Central Australia

A Central Australian health organisation has said a slow uptake of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has led to up to 50 doses being dumped.

A CENTRAL Australian health organisation has said a slow uptake of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has led to up to 50 doses being dumped.

The vaccine, which comes in a vial of 10 doses, has a shelf life of just two days once opened, leaving some clinicians unable to distribute all doses in the prescribed time frame.

Central Australian Aboriginal Congress’s NT chief medical officer for public health, Dr John Boffa, told ABC Darwin on Friday that when clinicians have people asking to be vaccinated, they are having to think about the likelihood of “getting through a vial over the next two days”.

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Australian Medical Association NT president Dr Robert Parker said there were several reasons behind slow vaccine uptake in the Central Australian community.

“There is a fear of the AstraZeneca vaccine and people are reluctant, and now there’s also the issue of the stalling of the vaccination program,” he said.

“They should be embracing the vaccine because blood clots are an extremely rare event, as opposed the awful coronavirus, which people need to be protected from.”

Dr Parker added that to improve vaccine uptake, there should be better co-ordination of the government’s vaccine rollout and improved education for the community.

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