Page 2742 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 6 October 2021
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vaccine supply and thousands of bookings that we can fill in the next few weeks, so please make your appointment today.
There are approximately 87 general practices and respiratory clinics and 64 community pharmacies administering COVID-19 vaccines to eligible Canberrans. The government’s equity to access program continues to deliver COVID-19 vaccinations to vulnerable and marginalised community members through in-reach, pop-up, mobile and in-home settings.
In September, the ACT Health Directorate worked alongside Aspen Medical to deliver 811 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to people who have found it difficult to access health services from mainstream providers. This has included people from our culturally and linguistically diverse community, people living with disability and their family and carers, LGBTIQ+ community members, and people living in insecure accommodation.
The uptake of COVID-19 vaccines across the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community has been a key area of focus for the government. While the ACT leads the nation, we still have work to do to ensure that all Canberrans are given the opportunity to be vaccinated.
As at 29 September, 78.6 per cent of eligible Canberrans who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander had received their first vaccination and 53.8 per cent were fully vaccinated. This is 11 percentage points behind the wider population of eligible Canberrans.
The ACT government will continue to work in partnership with Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Service, which is working tirelessly to support the COVID-19 vaccination program. We will also be offering dedicated COVID-19 vaccination drop-in clinics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people throughout the month of October. Drop-in clinics will be made available on the south side on 7 and 28 October in partnership with Yeddung Mura and on the north side on 8 and 29 October at Gungahlin Salvos.
As we get closer to our target of 95 per cent coverage for all eligible Canberrans, the ACT government has decided to cease operations at the Calvary Public Hospital COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccination clinic, effective from 8 October. AstraZeneca vaccines are still available at participating GPs across Canberra. We will continue to have three mass vaccination clinics in operation at the Canberra Airport and the Australian Institute of Sport, as well as at the Weston Creek Community Health Centre, which operates an access and sensory vaccination clinic. Additional appointments at the access and sensory clinic have been made available to ensure that people with sensory or accessibility challenges can be protected with at least one vaccination dose before we begin our path out of lockdown.
The commonwealth-led program for vaccinations in residential aged-care facilities continues to be closely monitored by ACT Health. Following the implementation of a vaccine mandate for residential aged-care staff, 99.8 per cent of residential aged-care facility staff, which I understand equates to all active residential aged-care facility
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