New Queensland Covid-19 vaccine hubs a frontline shot in arm
Three new vaccination centres have opened in Queensland, specifically targeting frontline workers, aged care staff and 40 to 49 year olds after an ‘overwhelming’ number of registrations.
Three new vaccination centres have opened in Queensland, specifically targeting frontline workers, aged care staff and 40 to 49 year olds after an “overwhelming” number of registrations.
The new hubs, adding to 15 already in place, were announced on Thursday after a spike in the number of eligible people under 50 years of age showing interest in receiving a Covid-19 vaccine.
The vaccination centres will remain open on the weekend to anyone who has made a booking and will be used as a trial to up-scale the centres to mass vaccination hubs later in the year.
Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath, who received her first vaccination dose last week, said the 18 new vaccination centres throughout the state had been set up in response to 30,000 registrations from people aged between 40 and 49 in the past week. “All of them will be open on Saturday and 10 will be operational on Sunday as well,” she said. “We hope this weekend will be a platform for us to go forward and to build on our capacity.”
Ms D’Ath encouraged people aged over 50 to book their vaccination through a GP.
“This vaccination event will be a trial to see if it is something we can do regularly in the future. We need to make sure our processes are working effectively to be able to perform events of this scale,” she said.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the guaranteed supply of vaccines from the federal government had given her confidence to expand the state’s vaccine program, which has fallen behind other eastern states.
“But we’re confident we have enough supply from the commonwealth to expand vaccinations to the general community, with an initial focus on people aged 40 to 49 who have registered their interest in receiving a vaccination, and residential aged care workers and disability staff,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
Queensland Health data revealed more than 40 per cent of respondents said they were “unlikely” to be vaccinated.
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