Ballarat Health Services are to be congratulated. 100,000 jabs in arms, keeping our community safe, as we race towards 80%+ of our eligible population being vaccinated, is a significant milestone. Ballarat Health Services, along with UFS, Ballarat Community Health and our GP network are doing an outstanding job, administering every dose of available Vaccine they have. We simply need more. Together, we have been calling on our community to “Roll Up Your Sleeve” and we have done so in great numbers.
We are now calling on the Federal Government to guarantee a sufficient supply of vaccine to allow us to increase our pace of vaccination as we aim for 80% of our population and then beyond. In the last week of August and first week of September, we have seen an increase of 4.4% of our fully vaccinated eligible population over the age of 16, now at 44.1%. At this same rate, it will take a further 9 weeks to move beyond 80%.
However, the numbers are about to change as from 13 September, 12-15 year old’s will be eligible. 80% is now a larger total number. The race has changed.
We have been told for months by the federal government that more supply will be available in September and October. We were being told this before the recent Moderna approval and before the recent arrivals through the vaccination swap arrangements.
With more of the population to now vaccinate, the race just stepped up in pace. We must then see additional supply of vaccine so our health services can step up their pace and deliver even more jabs. In this race, we need to deliver vaccine where the people are, in addition to our current vaccination hubs. We need to ensure our health services can administer “on-site”, by going to the hard-to-get communities, by going to schools once students return and going to workplaces. All of this is only possible with increased and guaranteed supply.
Our Health Services have demonstrated they can deliver at the current pace and importantly, have the capacity to step up the pace, with more available supply.
We now need the Federal Government to provide sufficient and guaranteed supply so we can beat this pandemic with over 80% of our population over the age of 12 years, fully vaccinated.