Wyndham Council in Melbourne’s west calls for ‘seven-day-a-week’ vaccine hub

Desperate vaccine calls are coming from Melbourne’s Covid-19 epicentre as infections continue to emerge across the city’s western suburbs.

Community leaders across Melbourne’s west – the epicentre of the state’s latest outbreak – are calling for a “seven-day-a week vaccine hub” to speed up the process of protecting people against Covid-19.

Latest federal government data showed Melbourne’s west had the lowest Covid-19 vaccination rates in Victoria, with many of the suburbs hardest hit by last year’s outbreak recording vaccination uptake rates well below the national average.

Fewer than 35 per cent of people aged 15 and over living in Melbourne’s west and northwest have had at least their first dose of the vaccine.

It comes as the City of Wyndham was again in the spotlight of an outbreak after a teacher at Al-Taqwa college in Truganina tested positive last Wednesday, just hours after the state had recorded a day of no new cases.

People line up for vaccines at Al-Taqwa College following a positive case. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

She had been teaching at the school while infectious and also been in contact with her partner, who lived in Newport.

Exposure sites and cases grew within just 24 hours and sparked Victoria’s sixth lockdown the following day.

It also prompted a testing and jab blitz in Melbourne’s west, with a pop-up vaccine hub at the Truganina college.

On Tuesday night, Wyndham Council voted unanimously to urgently call on the state government to set up a “seven-day-a-week vaccination hub in the area”, which included access to the jabs for under 40s.

Wyndham Council mayor Adele Hegedich said it was a matter of “equity and access”.

“More than half of Wyndham’s 280,000 residents are aged under 35. They urgently need local access to vaccinations,” she said.

“It is in the interests of the whole state and in fact the whole country for the state to prioritise access to the vaccine for our young Wyndham residents.”

Melbourne’s west has the lowest Covid-19 vaccination rate in Victoria. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

West Metro Covid Vaccination Program project director Lisa Smith said the department and Western Health set up the testing centre at Al-Taqwa College to help about 2500 primary close contacts linked to the school to get access to testing and the vaccine.

The plan was for staff at the centre to administer about 500 doses a day during its opening hours from 8am to 8pm, she said.

Last year, 932 people in the western suburbs local government areas were infected with Covid-19.

When questioned over why Melbourne’s western suburbs had the lowest vaccination rates in the state, Victorian Covid-19 testing commander Jeroen Weimar said it was due to the area having a population “younger than the rest of the state”.

“And we have had age-based limits on access to vaccines for really good public health reasons given the limited supply of vaccines,” he said.

“Another factor is the under representation of that community when it comes to GP distribution sites for the vaccines.

“GPs make up about half of the statewide distribution of vaccines and then on top of that there’s making sure that we’ve got the state-run clinic overlay as effective as we possibly can.”

Testing commander Jeroen Weimar urges people to get tested for Covid-19. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

Mr Weimar said more GPs, community pharmacies and state-run clinics would “fill the gaps” in the state’s vaccine rollout, once the Commonwealth increased supply.

“We’re very confident that will happen and start to ramp up in September,” he said.

Victoria recorded 20 new local cases on Wednesday – five of those were mystery cases.