A huge queue formed at the pop-up vaccination hub at the Greek Orthodox Church of St George in Thornbury to help the local community get their COVID-19 vaccines.
Greek Community of Melbourne President Bill Papastergiadis told Neos Kosmos that within five hours the bookings had filled and the initial idea to allow for morning walk-ins had quickly been scrapped.
The church hall currently accommodates ample space for six booths, with plenty of street parking in the area.
“We were allocated just over 1,000 shots over the weekend, and the Health Department was hoping for an 80 per cent uptake,” Mr Papastergiadis said, a goal that was surpassed within hours and no spots are currently available.
“We have offered four other sites around Melbourne and are in collaboration with authorities about the availability of vaccines,” he said.
As long queues formed outside the Greek church, Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt announced that Pfizer jabs would be made available to all children in the 12-15 year-old age group from 13 September.
READ MORE: Greek Community launches vaccination pop-up at its Thornbury church
The minister said advice and information from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) was guiding the process.
Mr Hunt expressed satisfaction at the rate of vaccinations in the country with over 18.4 million vaccinations taking place nationally.
“Fewer than five million vaccinations are needed and we are closing in on that target,” the minister said.
Will vaccine passports pave the way towards normalcy?
The proposal for vaccine passports to allow greater freedoms for vaccinated Australians is gaining ground.
The idea that is already being implemented in many countries, including Greece and France, would allow for vaccinated people to have access to restaurants, bars, sport, concerts and travel.
The proposal discussed in National Cabinet on Friday was drafted by the national cabinet subcommittee led by Victoria, the Northern Territory and Tasmania. According to the plan people would be able to show vaccination certificates already available on mobile devices through Apple Wallet and Google Pay.
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said “enthusiasm” for the plan “has come from the private sector, from community organisations and others who want to be part of that, and makes us more certain that strategy is correct,” he said.
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Labor Leader Anthony Albanese told Greek Australian journalists on Friday that he supported the idea.
“As we get the rates up we will be able to do more things,” he said, adding that “vaccines are safe, they save lives, that is why we are living longer” and he pointed to “scientific breakthroughs”.
“The key is to getting vaccines out there and getting those numbers up.”
Looking to normalcy in the future, he said. “Just as you need to have evidence of getting vaccinated to get on a plane to go overseas, just as we can all remember having to have typhoid and cholera and other vaccinations in order to travel, that will be a fact of life, and people will need it as well, I suspect to go to the MCG, to go to events they need to get to,” he said.
The national plan to allow for reopening with 70- to 80- percent of the population vaccinated was based on modelling by the Doherty Institute which predicted the numbers of deaths and cases in the community.