A SUPER Sunday blitz aims to get COVID jabs in to the arms of most Ballarat year 12 students, well clear of the official start to VCE exams.
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Ballarat Health Services has opened up 500 Pfizer bookings dedicated to year 12 students and younger students who were studying a year 12 subject for this Sunday.
BHS primary and community care executive director Craig Wilding said there was the capacity to expand on this, should there be the demand.
Almost 200 year 12 students from Ballarat have already booked in for a jab since given priority booking access on Monday.
This does not include students aged 16-plus, who have been eligible to join Pfizer queues less than a fortnight ago.
This also does not include students who may have accessed bookings outside the state-run vaccination hub, such as UFS or Ballarat Community Health.
The Victorian government aims for all year 12s to have had at least one COVID jab by September 17 with the exam period to begin on October 5.
Bookings to the BHS-run vaccination centre, based at The Mercure, must be made via the state government phone hotline, 1800 675 398. The hotline offers options to prioritise year 12s.
Year 11s who are studying year 12 subjects can call the hotline from Wednesday.
BHS also strongly encourages students to follow vaccine guidelines from their schools.
The first day of the VCE vaccination blitz led to 30,000 calls battering the priority phone lines on Monday morning.
Victoria's COVID commander Jeroen Weimar guaranteed anyone who wanted a vaccination would get one after almost half the eligible student population applied for a spot in the first morning.
"Can I just assure every VCE student, I've got one at home myself, there's a dose set aside for you, between 7 and 19th September, " Mr Weimar said on Monday.
"If you're a year 11 student taking a VCE subject, you can phone from Wednesday. We're trying to get the year 12s booked in...There's no frantic rush.
"The doses are set aside for you. Everyone who wants to get it done can get it done."
IN OTHER NEWS
Details for VCE students, parents and schools on the priority jab bookings were delivered on Friday.
Walk-ups will not be accepted due to access for the Pfizer vaccinations and extra consent screenings for under-18s.
Anyone aged 18-plus can access AstraZeneca vaccinations, including walk-up jabs at the BHS centre, but the interval between both jabs, while halved to six weeks, would mean eligible students now would not likely receive a second dose until deep into the exam period.
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