coronavirus, coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID vaccine, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, vaccine, covid-19 vaccine australia
If you’d told Professor Sanjaya Senanayake last February he’d be lining up in a year’s time to get one of Canberra’s first COVID-19 vaccines, he would have been dumbfounded. The infectious diseases physician will do just that on Monday at the Garran Surge Centre. He is one of 50 Canberrans booked in to receive the vaccine on Monday. The first doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in the ACT on Sunday, ahead of the rollout. It came after the first Australians were vaccinated against COVID-19 on Sunday, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison. For Professor Senanayake, it’s a cause for celebration; an incredible feat that defies all expectations about what could have been achieved in so little time. “I am absolutely amazed and ecstatic that we are where we are now with the vaccine rollout both in Australia and around the world,” he said. “The fastest vaccine to be developed from start to finish prior to this was the mumps vaccine, which took four years. “To actually think that in the midst of the pandemic, with all the restrictions that we’ve had, that vaccine manufacturers and health professionals were able to get together and make not just one kind of vaccine but so many different kinds of vaccine … it’s amazing.” By Wednesday, Canberra Health Services hopes to vaccinate at least 250 people a day. There will be 12 health care workers administering the vaccine on Monday but this will be ramped up as appointments increase. Among the first to receive the vaccine in Canberra are COVID-19 testing staff, quarantine workers, airline staff, defence, police and health care workers from the ACT and surrounding region. About 4000 people will be vaccinated as part of the first stage. An ACT government spokeswoman said the government was “very pleased” at the rate frontline health care workers had booked their vaccination appointments. While the start of the vaccine rollout is promising, Professor Senanayake, who works for Canberra Health Services and the Australian National University, said it would take around 75 per cent of the population getting vaccinated in order for the nation to revert to a state of “normal”. But he warned Australians should be wary of letting overseas nations fall by the wayside. “If we leave infection control unchecked then new strains will appear that are resistant to the vaccine,” he said. “It won’t be long before the strains over there come over here and vaccinated or not, we’d have a problem.” Professor Senanayake said he anticipated the COVID-19 vaccine would be much like the flu jab, in that it would become something Australians got each year. As it stands, people are required to get two doses of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines. “With the vaccine we don’t actually know how long it lasts for in terms of its immunity because the trials haven’t been long enough, so it might be a year, it might be two years, it might be nine months – we just don’t know,” Professor Senanayake said. READ MORE: Registered nurse Brooke Marshall was last week learning about those kinds of logistics ahead of her administering some of the first COVID-19 jabs on Monday. As of Monday, she’d only been employed with Canberra Health Services to conduct COVID-19 tests for a little more than a week. She said she was excited to be among the first to move to administering the vaccine. “I’ve just studied for three years and I’m really grateful to have this opportunity,” Ms Marshall said. “My partner is in the Defence Force so he’ll be in the second phase of the rollout … so we’re both very excited “It’s just a really good thing, I think, for the world.”
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Registered nurse Brooke Marshall is happy to be one of the first wave of receivers of the coronavirus immunisation jabs in the ACT. Picture: Karleen Minney
If you’d told Professor Sanjaya Senanayake last February he’d be lining up in a year’s time to get one of Canberra’s first COVID-19 vaccines, he would have been dumbfounded.
The infectious diseases physician will do just that on Monday at the Garran Surge Centre. He is one of 50 Canberrans booked in to receive the vaccine on Monday.
The first doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in the ACT on Sunday, ahead of the rollout.
For Professor Senanayake, it’s a cause for celebration; an incredible feat that defies all expectations about what could have been achieved in so little time.
“I am absolutely amazed and ecstatic that we are where we are now with the vaccine rollout both in Australia and around the world,” he said.
“The fastest vaccine to be developed from start to finish prior to this was the mumps vaccine, which took four years.
“To actually think that in the midst of the pandemic, with all the restrictions that we’ve had, that vaccine manufacturers and health professionals were able to get together and make not just one kind of vaccine but so many different kinds of vaccine … it’s amazing.”
Professor Sanjaya Senanayake will be one of the first Canberrans to received the COVID-19 vaccine. Picture: Dion Georgopoulos
By Wednesday, Canberra Health Services hopes to vaccinate at least 250 people a day.
There will be 12 health care workers administering the vaccine on Monday but this will be ramped up as appointments increase.
Among the first to receive the vaccine in Canberra are COVID-19 testing staff, quarantine workers, airline staff, defence, police and health care workers from the ACT and surrounding region.
An ACT government spokeswoman said the government was “very pleased” at the rate frontline health care workers had booked their vaccination appointments.
While the start of the vaccine rollout is promising, Professor Senanayake, who works for Canberra Health Services and the Australian National University, said it would take around 75 per cent of the population getting vaccinated in order for the nation to revert to a state of “normal”.
But he warned Australians should be wary of letting overseas nations fall by the wayside.
“If we leave infection control unchecked then new strains will appear that are resistant to the vaccine,” he said.
“It won’t be long before the strains over there come over here and vaccinated or not, we’d have a problem.”
Professor Senanayake said he anticipated the COVID-19 vaccine would be much like the flu jab, in that it would become something Australians got each year.
As it stands, people are required to get two doses of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines.
“With the vaccine we don’t actually know how long it lasts for in terms of its immunity because the trials haven’t been long enough, so it might be a year, it might be two years, it might be nine months – we just don’t know,” Professor Senanayake said.
Registered nurse Brooke Marshall was last week learning about those kinds of logistics ahead of her administering some of the first COVID-19 jabs on Monday.
As of Monday, she’d only been employed with Canberra Health Services to conduct COVID-19 tests for a little more than a week.
She said she was excited to be among the first to move to administering the vaccine.
“I’ve just studied for three years and I’m really grateful to have this opportunity,” Ms Marshall said.
“My partner is in the Defence Force so he’ll be in the second phase of the rollout … so we’re both very excited
“It’s just a really good thing, I think, for the world.”
