Ballarat aged care residents will be among the first to receive the Pfizer COVID vaccine from next Monday.
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About 240 aged care homes across Australia, including an unknown number in Ballarat and Ballarat East, will receive stock of the vaccine during the first week of jabs.
Aged care workers and residents, as well as frontline workers and quarantine staff, will be among the first Australians immunised against coronavirus after stocks of the vaccine arrived in Australia this week.
According to a Senator Sarah Henderson press release, vaccination hubs will be in:
- Ballarat
- Ballarat East
- Canadian
- Creswick
- Delacombe
- Mount Clear
- Wendouree
Victorian health minister Martin Foley confirmed that Victoria would initially receive about 11,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine per week.
The number of vaccines available is expected to increase in the coming weeks after the Therapeutic Goods Administration this week approved the AstraZeneca vaccine, which can be produced locally.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, which the majority of the population will receive, is due to be ready for use in early March.
Regional and urban locations in all states and territories have been chosen to kick off the vaccination program next week.
In addition, there will be 16 Pfizer vaccine hubs in major cities where frontline quarantine and health workers will be vaccinated as part of the initial phase.
Ballarat Health Services will host a Pfizer hub for western Victoria and oversee vaccinations to be delivered to Ballarat aged care facilities.
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Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the target was for 60,000 doses to be administered in the first week.
"Right across Australia, every state and territory, rural and regional, and urban areas will be covered," he said."It has to start somewhere and it has to finish somewhere, but this is the beginning of the process."
Mr Hunt named a sample of the residential aged care locations which include Ballarat, Alice Springs, and Penrith as the starting point for the national vaccination rollout, which aims to immunise all adults against COVID-19 by October.
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