ALTERNATIVE COVID-19 vaccine Novavax will roll out in Ballarat from Tuesday, amid a national "extra push" to get the jab hesitant protection against the deadly virus.
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The protein-based vaccine, newly approved by Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, arrived in Australia last week. Novavax will only be available via a small number of pharmacies and general practices in Ballarat for adults aged 18-plus.
At this stage, the Grampians Health vaccination clinic at The Mercure will not be offering Novavax. The state-run hub will continue to offer AstraZeneca and Pfizer doses.
UFS' COVID-19 clinic in Dana Street will play a key role in Novavax for the region, offering the jab for unvaccinated residents twice a week.
Novavax is the first protein-based vaccine approved for use in Australia.
The federal health department hoped its availability was enough of an "extra push" to get unvaccinated residents finally rolling up their sleeves against COVID-19.
More than 95 per cent of Ballarat residents, aged 12-plus, have had at least two COVID-19 jabs.
Despite a gradual drop in COVID-19 cases, Ballarat still has a rolling seven-day average of 195 reported infections. There were 174 new cases recorded on Monday with Ballarat's active case tally rising to 1275 people with COVID-19.
This comes in the wake of density limits being scrapped for hospitality and entertainment venues on Friday night, with dancefloors also re-opening across the state.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to ease COVID-19 restrictions further this week.This likely will include a step up in elective surgeries in public hospitals across the state.
UFS primary care operations manager Danielle Trezise told The Courier UFS was not expecting big numbers of people seeking the Novavax vaccine, but there had been strong interest.
UFS will offer the vaccine option on Tuesdays and Saturdays, with the COVID-19 clinic extending its hours for testing and jabs into the evenings on Tuesday to Thursday for the next three months in a bid to improve access.
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Novavax has not been approved as a booster dose in Australia.
The vaccine is only available for a first or second dose and there were strict rules about who could access Novavax for a second jab.
Largely, mixing jabs would only be approved for people with rare, medical reactions to their initial vaccine - vector (AstraZeneca) or mRNA (Moderna or Pfizer).
Victorian University immunology researcher Jack Feehan and Vasso Apostolopoulos said some people had been waiting for Novavax because of fears about the mechanisms by which other vaccines work. They wrote this was largely based on a misinformation campaign falsely claiming to permanently change genetics..
Novavax directly places the COVID-19 spike protein in reach of the immune system compared to Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, which spur on a person's own protein-making systems for protection.
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