By Jed Lanyon and Mikayla van Loon
Every Victorian aged 16 years and over is now eligible to access a coronavirus vaccine at state-run vaccination centres from 25 August, under an expansion of the state vaccine program in a bid to reach the goal of one million doses over five weeks.
The change means that anyone aged 18 to 59 will be eligible to receive either Pfizer or AstraZeneca – with people aged 16 to 17 able to receive the Pfizer vaccine. Those aged 60 and over will continue to receive AstraZeneca.
Currently, 52 per cent of Outer East residents aged over 16 have received their first vaccination dose, while 35 per cent are now fully vaccinated against Covid-19 according to Federal Health Department figures from 22 August.
Yarra Ranges Mayor Fiona McAllister recently met with Deputy Premier James Merlino on a range of issues, one of which was vaccine accessibility across the region.
“That’s something that has gone through council and our vaccination numbers for the Yarra Valley are lower than average and that’s no surprise when you hear the stories of people having to travel to the Melbourne Exhibition Centre to get their vaccine,” she said, speaking to Star Mail.
“Not everybody has the luxury of time or even to literally get out there when they are homeschooling or spending time on public transport.
“Understandably, we want people to be able to get vaccinated closer to home and to make sure our vaccination numbers go up quickly.”
The announcement came with news of three new drive-through vaccination sites in Broadmeadows, Springvale and Werribee, joining a Melton site.
Star Mail took to the streets of Lilydale to ask young residents what their thoughts are about now being able to access the Pfizer vaccine and how they feel about having to travel through the region to get the jab.
Many of the young people Star Mail spoke to said they would travel wherever necessary to get their vaccination and were pleased more Pfizer doses had opened up to their age group.
Rebecca, 25 and her partner Lachlan, 28, tried all day on Wednesday 25 August to book Lachlan an appointment.
“We have been trying online all day to get Lach booked in and just haven’t had any luck. We have even got through on a couple of occasions and then it comes up saying that he’s still ineligible,” Rebecca said.
“I think they were saying earlier it crashed so I think there’s a lot of people who were pretty keen to do it,” Lachlan said.
“People seem to think that Pfizer, for whatever reason, is a lot better than the other one and so they’re pretty happy to be hooking into it.”
As a healthcare worker, Rebecca has already been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine but Lachlan has been ineligible until now.
Lachlan said even though he might have to travel into a state vaccination centre, he would do what it takes to get back to normal.
“I think we sort of think that if we can do that to help things get back to normal quicker then we’re happy to do it,” he said.
Amber, 26, is in a similar position. She has received her first Pfizer vaccination but her partner has been ineligible.
“I’m pretty happy about it, pretty pleased. My partner has been waiting for ages to be eligible,” Amber said.
“I’ve been eligible for a while just from my line of work but she’s been waiting for a long time. So it’s good to see that it’s available for more young people.”
Amber said she not only hopes but thinks people will travel into the city or elsewhere for their vaccination.
“I think at this point everyone’s just super over being in lockdown. You’re probably going to do the travel to get out of it but everyone’s got a different outlook on the vaccination as well I guess,” she said.
Over the next four weeks, there will be over 830,000 appointments for Covid-19 vaccines at more than 55 state run centres operating across Victoria – this includes 450,000 first dose appointments for the Pfizer vaccine.
With this new expansion, the number of Victorians eligible to receive Pfizer has increased by two million.
Approximately 1.7 million Victorians aged 16 to 59 have already been vaccinated across general practice, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, community pharmacy and state vaccination centres.
The expansion follows the supply of an additional 175,000 doses of Pfizer from the Commonwealth, recently received from overseas.
Anyone aged 18 to 39 who has a current booking for AstraZeneca from Wednesday 25 August who would prefer to receive Pfizer, will not need to cancel or change their booking – they will be offered Pfizer upon arrival for their appointment, unless they would prefer to receive AstraZeneca.
