Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews announced that anyone aged 16 years and over will be able to access either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine at state-run vaccination centres from Wednesday 25 August.
People aged 16 to 17 will be able to receive the Pfizer vaccine. Those aged 60 and over will continue to receive AstraZeneca.
“Anyone aged 18 to 39 who has booked for AstraZeneca will be able to receive Pfizer if they prefer, you will not need to cancel or change your booking — you will be offered Pfizer when you arrive for your appointment, unless you would prefer to receive AstraZeneca,” Mr Andrews said.
He urged people to consider going to one of the state’s new drive-through vaccination hubs at the former Ford Factory in Geelong, Sandown Racecourse in Springvale, and Eagle Stadium in Werribee.
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“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,” Mr Andrews said.
Premier Andrews said that there’s “no other option to lockdowns” other than reaching the 70 per cent and 80 per cent vaccination rate.
“Some of the people in hospital are quite young and it is very concerning, if there was another way then every premier in the country would have chosen it, including me,” Mr Andrews said.
Asked about lockdowns the Premier said that “every leader in the country has signed onto this plan”.
“We use lockdowns to deal with this fundamental dilemma of Delta, which infects very fast, and we can’t vaccinate people fast enough because we haven’t got supply in order to vaccinate ahead of the infection curve.”
On the additional Pfizer vaccines secured from Poland, Mr Andrews said that “we can be confident that the Polish doses are coming to us, they will arrive and we’re able to expand that program and open up eligibility for essentially all Victorians.”
“Only one slight caveat on that, 16- and 17-year-olds aren’t eligible for AstaZeneca, they must be Pfizer.
“The best thing you can do is make an appointment today,” Mr Andrews urged.
He said that he will “continue to try and push Astra” and on Pfizer he said it’s “bizarre to have that stockpile, which I’m not going to leave in the fridge, and then deny people the choice.”
“If you are in the older group, you’re recommended to take Astra,” Mr Andrews said.
The Premier was confident that Victorians “have an opportunity to drive cases down.”
On the issue of any greater freedoms before Victoria hits the 70 per cent and 80 per cent vaccination rate the Premier said that it depends on “case numbers”, and the “circumstances, or the stories that sit behind each of those cases.”
Once Victorians hit target vaccination rates, Mr Andrews said it will be “a pandemic of the unvaccinated”.
“Less beds will be filled by totally preventable cases and less patients for heart stroke or whatever might be, will be bumped out of the care.
“People should get vaccinated for very good reasons, for your family and every family now, and particularly into the future.”
He recognised the frustrations with rolling lockdowns but warned “imagine what that number will be like if we open before we get to 70 per cent and 80 per cent.
“It is frustrating that we can’t just flick a switch and that there aren’t other options if there were I would take them.”
Neos Kosmos flagged the idea of mandated vaccination for health workers, especially in hospitals, particularly given clusters at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and others.
“Vaccination levels are at 80 per cent plus now, if I get medical advice that we’ve got to do more, then mandates might be one of the things we do, but there’s other ways…we can incentivise
“About 82 per cent in our age care and public sector are vaccinated, and the 19 per cent who aren’t vaccinated – are not part of the roster until they can get the jab.
“If we are not getting the coverage we need, and if we need to mandate it, then we will do that,” Mr Andrews said.
He added that it would be a “respectful process” and that there would be discussions with unions and management.
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Neos Kosmos asked about increased hardship faced by small businesses in multicultural communities in the sixth Victorian lockdown.
“There has been $7 billion worth of economic support, or closer to $8 billion, some of those announcements have been a partnership with Canberra, that’s enormous amounts of support.
“I get feedback from industry and from businesses that they’re very grateful for the support, but we don’t provide it for that reason.
“The best support though is to get customers back and that’s why we’ve got to drive those cases down so that we can get customers back into businesses, so we can get people back and ensure that businesses are not being closed,” Mr Andrews said.
Mr Andrews went on to say that “just in case anyone thought I’m picking on the Federal government, there was some very positive announcements yesterday in relation to childcare and rent relief.
“We’re all doing our best, and businesses are doing their absolute best, and we’re providing support if there’s more, we can do, we’ll do more,” Premier Andrews said.