Pharmacies to start offering the Covid-19 vaccine in the Territory from mid-July
EXCLUSIVE: Eligible Territorians will have another place to get their Covid vaccinations in coming weeks, with almost half of the NT’s pharmacies set to join the rollout following a six-month wait to get the go-ahead.
Northern Territory
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PHARMACIES that have been poised to administer Territorians with the Covid-19 jab for more than six months have received the go ahead from health authorities.
The Sunday Territorian can reveal health authorities have greenlit 16 of the Territory’s 40 community pharmacies to start jabbing eligible adults from July 12, to boost access in remote and rural areas.
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The NT’s pharmacies will be supplied with doses of AstraZeneca, according to the federal health department, despite that vaccine only last week being limited to people aged 60 and older.
Chemists in other states such as Queensland have been administering the jab for weeks.
Pharmacy Guild NT branch director Judith Oliver said 19 of the NT’s 40 community-based pharmacies were training staff late last year to administer the vaccine after expressing interest.
“We were ready in January,” Ms Oliver said.
She said there had been radio silence on the rollout to the pharmacies since March, until NT Health alerted them in mid-June that it was still going ahead.
“Pharmacies received a letter last week asking them … and they had to confirm by Wednesday,” she said.
Ms Oliver said because of storage requirements, many centres had not expecting to receive doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
A spokeswoman for the federal health department said the decision was made by national cabinet in late April.
“On 11 June 2021, the Australian Government Department of Health received a formal request from the NT Health Department to engage community pharmacy support from 19 pharmacies in rural and remote areas,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.
“While 19 community pharmacies were offered an opportunity to participate, three pharmacies withdrew from the vaccination program.”
The rollout will include pharmacies in Darwin and across the Territory.
It comes after the NT government lifted restrictions on eligibility of the Covid-19 vaccine, allowing anyone aged 16 and over to book.
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