Page 572 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 30 March 2021
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The ACT has a robust hotel quarantine system, with processes and procedures constantly reviewed and updated, based on lessons from each government facilitated flight and the recommendations provided by Australian Health Protection Principle Committee. We will continue to support national repatriation efforts, and ACT Health is working closely with the Australian government to identify further government-facilitated flights where the ACT can accommodate these flights.
As members would be aware, the ACT reached an important milestone in our response to COVID-19 with our vaccination program commencing on 22 February. The rollout of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines is being guided by the Australian COVID-19 vaccination policy, which sets out the roles and responsibilities of the commonwealth and ACT governments in relation to the implementation of a COVID-19 vaccination program. We have been working and will continue to work closely with the commonwealth government to ensure that Canberrans are well informed about the vaccination program.
The first people to receive the vaccine are those who need it most—initially people with a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms and those who are at greater risk of exposure, infection or transmitting the virus. Funding for the rollout of the vaccinations to Canberrans and our neighbours in the surrounding region was presented in the 2020-21 ACT budget, with our government contributing $19 million, plus $4.5 million in capital funding.
The government established the ACT’s vaccination hub at the Garran surge centre and administered the first phase of vaccinations to quarantine and border workers and frontline health workers. Two of the first recipients of the Pfizer vaccine in the ACT were Maddy, a Canberra Health Services COVID-19 testing nurse, and Dr Sanjaya Senanayake, an infectious diseases senior specialist at the ANU and sometime national media talent. Maddy and Sanjaya were the first of many frontline workers to receive the vaccine, and I would like to acknowledge the incredible efforts of all our health staff who have facilitated the delivery of more than 9,700 vaccine doses as part of our vaccination program to date.
Staff and residents in disability and aged residential care were also included in phase 1a of the national rollout, with the commonwealth government responsible for providing vaccinations to these priority groups. As members would be aware, phase 1b of the national program commenced on 22 March, with general practitioners beginning to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged 70 and over, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over 55, people with a specified underlying medical condition, and frontline and critical workers not covered in phase 1a.
The commonwealth government has established a national system that can direct community members to participating general practices via the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility checker at healthdirect.gov.au. I urge all members in this place to encourage the community to visit this site but also encourage their constituents to be patient. There are around 100,000 people in the ACT who are eligible for phase 1b, which will take time to work through.
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