Tara Murray
A steady flow of people were making their way through the Sunshine Hospital’s high-volume COVID-19 vaccination centre last week.
The centre, which started on April 23 as a vaccination hub for health workers, recorded its highest patient numbers last week since it started accepting the general public.
On Tuesday, more than 600 people passed through the centre.
People who are over 50 are now eligible for the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Shayne Webster was among those getting his vaccine last week. The 54-year-old said it was an easy process.
“My wife is from Canada and we’re missing seeing her family,” he said.
“I wanted to get it done as soon as possible, so we can travel if it is required.
“It’s something you have to do I guess with the whole situation. It shows how lucky we are to be able to get the vaccine.”
As well as helping vaccine the general public, the hub is still vaccinating health care workers and people who fall into the first priority group.
They also have the Pfizer vaccine available for people aged under 50 who are eligible to be vaccinated.
Associate nurse manager Rowena Heldt said the had been at almost full capacity since the expansion of the roll-out.
“It’s actually fantastic seeing the public coming through,” she said. “It’s been pretty busy when we’ve been able to open up to the public.
“We were up to 800 a day when we first started, it went down, but we’re back up to 600 and that is really good and I think we’ll get even more.
“We would love more people to come through…if they don’t book in, they can walk in and we’re happy to take them in too.”
Western Health’s head of infectious diseases, Dr Marion Kainer, said she saw lots of positives to being vaccinated.
“There are health benefits to you as an individual. There are health benefits to your loved ones and you’re protecting elderly persons.
“You’re protecting those who don’t have good immune systems. We’re ensuring that we can protect the community.”
Dr Kainer said with winter coming , getting vaccinated was even more important as people would be indoors more, which increases the risk of super spreading events.
She said while there were concerns about the AstraZeneca vaccine due to blood clots, she said the risk for those over 50 was extremely low.
She said studies in Europe found people between the ages of 50 and 70 were at a one in 100,000 risk of getting blood clots and people over 70 were one in a 200,000 risk and the blood clots weren’t the usual ones people get.
“There’s lots of pluses getting as many people get vaccinated as quickly as possible,” she said.
“We’re in a fortune position in Australia that we’re not dealing with what is happening overseas.”
