coronavirus, coronavirus, COVID-19, Canberra vaccine, Pfizer, AstraZeneca
The ACT’s rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine will begin next week. ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith on Thursday said the vaccine would be administered at the Garran Surge Centre. The surge centre was turned into the territory’s first vaccination hub with the start of the Pfizer vaccine rollout, and continued to operate in part as a COVID-19 testing clinic. But Ms Stephen-Smith said the hub would stop offering testing from 5pm next Monday. She said the testing side of the surge centre would be converted into an AstraZeneca vaccination hub. “We’ve talked before about the fact that the surge centre is split in two separate halves, so that will be the half for [the] Pfizer [vaccine] and the [other] half for [the] AstraZeneca [vaccine],” Ms Stephen-Smith said. The minister said there was plenty of other places in the ACT people could get a COVID-19 test, and Canberra Health Services had capacity to quickly set up additional testing sites if it needed to. Ms Stephen-Smith could not put an exact date on when the ACT’s AstraZeneca rollout would start, but she said the territory’s initial share of 2800 doses was expected to arrive in the coming days. ACT Chief Health Officer Kerryn Coleman said Canberrans would be able to start getting the AstraZeneca jab next week. Ms Stephen-Smith said the AstraZeneca doses would be used in the ACT’s current vaccine rollout phase “1a”. She said that meant the ACT could increase how many people got the jab in the phase. “[The rollout] has been going very, very well from our Pfizer hub at the Garran Surge Centre, but we will be able to scale that up as the AstraZeneca vaccinations become available,” Ms Stephen-Smith said. “That means that we can ensure that more of our frontline health workers, and particularly those working in hospital settings, can be vaccinated more quickly.” Australia received its first stock of the AstraZeneca vaccine – 300,000 doses – on Sunday. Earlier this week, Ms Stephen-Smith said the federal government initially did not want the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines to be administered at the same place. She said that was for safety reasons and to ensure authorities could be certain about who got what vaccine. READ MORE: “This is a significant logistical exercise and so the more notice that we can get, the better it will be in terms of standing up our workforce and making sure that we have the right location available,” Ms Stephen-Smith said. Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
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The ACT’s rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine will begin next week.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith on Thursday said the vaccine would be administered at the Garran Surge Centre.
The surge centre was turned into the territory’s first vaccination hub with the start of the Pfizer vaccine rollout, and continued to operate in part as a COVID-19 testing clinic.
But Ms Stephen-Smith said the hub would stop offering testing from 5pm next Monday.
She said the testing side of the surge centre would be converted into an AstraZeneca vaccination hub.
“We’ve talked before about the fact that the surge centre is split in two separate halves, so that will be the half for [the] Pfizer [vaccine] and the [other] half for [the] AstraZeneca [vaccine],” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
The minister said there was plenty of other places in the ACT people could get a COVID-19 test, and Canberra Health Services had capacity to quickly set up additional testing sites if it needed to.
Ms Stephen-Smith could not put an exact date on when the ACT’s AstraZeneca rollout would start, but she said the territory’s initial share of 2800 doses was expected to arrive in the coming days.
ACT Chief Health Officer Kerryn Coleman said Canberrans would be able to start getting the AstraZeneca jab next week.
Ms Stephen-Smith said the AstraZeneca doses would be used in the ACT’s current vaccine rollout phase “1a”.
She said that meant the ACT could increase how many people got the jab in the phase.
“[The rollout] has been going very, very well from our Pfizer hub at the Garran Surge Centre, but we will be able to scale that up as the AstraZeneca vaccinations become available,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
“That means that we can ensure that more of our frontline health workers, and particularly those working in hospital settings, can be vaccinated more quickly.”
Earlier this week, Ms Stephen-Smith said the federal government initially did not want the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines to be administered at the same place.
She said that was for safety reasons and to ensure authorities could be certain about who got what vaccine.
“This is a significant logistical exercise and so the more notice that we can get, the better it will be in terms of standing up our workforce and making sure that we have the right location available,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
