National Australia Bank has made an amazing offer to its employees in a bid to push up the country’s vaccination rates

National Australia Bank has made an amazing offer to its employees to help increase Australia’s Covid vaccination rate.

National Australia Bank has taken up the challenge to get jabs in arms by offering the AstraZeneca vaccine to its employees at work.

NAB CEO Ross McEwan made the announcement on Friday that he wanted every NAB employee to have access to a Covid-19 vaccine, with NSW workers to be the first to receive a jab.

Mr McEwan said he had already been inoculated and Australia cannot reach its Covid vaccine targets soon enough.

“I want to help every colleague access the same level of protection, and in turn, play our part in protecting the community,” he said.

NAB CEO Ross McEwan wrote to employees on Friday to announce AstraZeneca jabs will be available at their workplaces. Picture: Aaron Francis

“Next week we will launch a pilot to offer AstraZeneca vaccines to colleagues at work, in partnership with the Department of Health and our flu vaccination provider.

“Initially, it will be available to colleagues and their adult household members, starting in some of the hardest-hit Local Government Areas in Sydney.

“We will expand the program to offer more vaccines, in more buildings, to more colleagues right across Australia. We’re still working through the details but will make that happen as soon as we can.”

He was mindful of how lockdown was affecting his staff across the nation – the rollout would in some part assist in NSW coming out of restrictions sooner.

“Everyone’s resilience is being tested and the situation is very difficult, but we will bounce back,” he said.

“I am confident about the long-term outlook, especially now we have hope that widespread lockdowns won’t be needed when we reach vaccination targets across our communities.”

The latest Australian government data shows 51 per cent of people over the age of 16 have had one dose and 28.9 per cent have been fully vaccinated. Picture: Christian Gilles / NCA NewsWire

“We cannot reach these vaccination targets soon enough. The timing depends on all of us and it was great to read this morning that we’re halfway there; our own economics team says we’re on track for 80 per cent full adult vaccination by mid-November.”

“Please stay safe and get vaccinated when you can.”

Under the Doherty Institute road map plan, the current levels of vaccination is known as Phase A. Phase B is when Australia reaches 70 per cent of all adults fully vaccinated with two doses.

Under Phase B of the Covid-19 road map, when 70 per cent of adults are vaccinated, lockdowns are less likely but possible.

The latest Australian government data shows 51 per cent of people over the age of 16 have had one dose and 28.9 per cent have been fully vaccinated.