The good news is that with an influx of Moderna into Ballarat, there appears to no longer be a supply issue. But the race to immunise the nation is far from won.
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Denmark, the first nation in Europe to completely open up when 73 per cent of its population was double-vaxxed, has had to reintroduce some restrictions. We haven't yet reached 60 per cent.
Chief Health officer Brett Sutton has used these international examples to highlight that more than 90 per cent vaccination rates should be the objective in order to ensure that the inevitably large numbers of cases (which could grow even further once we open up) do not overwhelm the health system.
Even in Singapore where the vaccination rate is this high and daily case numbers are 2500, this can convert into 50 new seriously sick people needing a hospital bed every day.
Next week, Ballarat base will become a streaming hospital to take up some of the growing number of cases from Melbourne so this is an issue that affects us and our services now.
The figure Professor Sutton is looking toward is even higher; Portugal which has 97 per cent vaccination. Why? The higher the vaccination rate, the wider the protection and the lower the rate of hospitalisation.
The figures speak for themselves - yesterday 93 per cent of those currently getting very sick from COVID have had no vaccine at all.
These arguments on what you should do to protect yourself, your family and your community have been concluded. Vaccination is also the only route out of lockdown.
Ballarat has certainly done its job here and continues to push ahead of the national average. But we are not there yet.
We need to target those significant pockets of under-vaccination - not only for the protection this provides all groups in our community whether they be those with disabilities, the Indigenous or migrant groups where language or culture might be a barrier but anyone where access or the lack of expert information is creating irresolution or hesitancy.
Here is where the federal government can step in with a national campaign targeting these knowledge gaps and offering incentives for that last 10 to 15 per cent of holdouts.
There is no time to waste.