FIRST dose COVID vaccination rates in Ballarat have steadily climbed the past fortnight, new data shows, with more than half the eligible population jabbed ahead of an expected boom with teenagers added to the mix.
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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has opened up Pfizer and AstraZeneca appointments for 16 to 39-year-olds in state-run mass vaccination centres from Wednesday. The past fortnight, the only option for adults aged under-40 was AstraZeneca.
While Ballarat remains behind major regional centres Bendigo, Geelong and Warrnambool in vaccination rates, the city's first jabs in arms has risen about six percentage points the past fortnight according to federal health department figures released on Tuesday.
Ballarat now has 56.4 per cent of its eligible population, aged 15-plus, with at least one dose against the deadly virus.
In comparison, Geelong (61.4 per cent) and Bendigo (61.1 per cent) are leading the state in first doses with Warrnambool having delivered 60.8 per cent.
Regional centre Shepparton, which is experiencing an outbreak, has only 55.1 per cent of residents aged 15-plus vaccinated.
This comes as regional Victoria endures its seventh hard lockdown, scheduled to end Thursday at midnight.
Victoria has recorded 50 new COVID cases with 40 linked to known outbreaks and 39 were not isolating while infectious. This brings the state's active case tally to 522.
Geelong has the highest proportion of fully vaccinated adults, just shy of 39 per cent, with Bendigo strong on 38.2 per cent.
More than 35 per cent of Ballarat residents are fully vaccinated, in a sharp rise of almost 12 percentage points in the past two weeks.
Victorian residents aged 60 to 69 were last week revealed as being the slowest to take up the jab. Only 28.09 per cent have had a double dose of a COVID vaccine, which is predominantly AstraZeneca.
This is despite vaccines having been available to over-60s since late March.
To book a jab, call the coronavirus hotline on 1800 675 398 or go online to portal.cvms.vic.gov.au/. Or, for the UFS clinic on Dana Street, call 4320 0891 (Pfizer and AstraZeneca) or online ufs.com.au/vaccine (AstraZeneca only).
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