SWAN Hill District Health is unable to take bookings for first doses of Covid vaccines for the next three weeks.
SHDH chief executive officer Peter Abraham told The Guardian the service was postponing first dose appointments for AstraZeneca to allow second doses to be booked.
“With the health service’s current level of vaccine supply of both AstraZeneca and Pfizer, we are were essentially booked out for the next three weeks,” Mr Abraham said.
SHDH runs both state and federal vaccination clinics, and is currently administering more than 100 vaccinations a day.
“A good percentage of our community have received their first dose, but increasingly a greater number have received their second dose and are fully vaccinated,” Mr Abraham said.
“So every day about a third to half of that day we’re doing second dose vaccines.”
He said SHDH was now at the 12-week mark in the vaccination rollout.
“Two weeks ago we started doing second dose vaccinations,” Mr Abraham said.
“Out of that, let’s say 120 per day, there’s only 50 per cent of those vaccinations we have available are for new doses.
He said the Swan Hill region had been well served, with close to 3000 first dose AstraZeneca jabs now administered.
“We’re booked out for AstraZeneca for a little while yet – there’s always been a demand in Swan Hill with AstraZeneca,” Mr Abraham said.
“We’re really pleased with where we are placed in terms of the vaccination rollout for this community.
“When it’s your turn, get vaccinated. That’s as important now as it always has been.”
Current recommendations are for the two AstraZeneca doses to be administered 12 weeks apart, and 21 days apart for Pfizer.
While Pfizer is not yet available to the general public in Swan Hill, SHDH had secured a “modest” one-off supply to vaccinate in the service’s high priority areas of disability and aged care.
