THE death of a Robinvale woman from COVID has fuelled a renewed interest in vaccinations, according to a local pharmacist.
Robinvale Amcal pharmacist John Pisasale said since death of a woman in her 70s last week, multiple first vaccination appointments had been arranged for previously hesitant individuals.
“It’s a silver lining out of an awful situation,” Mr Pisasale said.
“This will save lives, and also reduce the pressure on hospitals who will need to deal with other sick patients.”
Mr Pisasale urged those who remained unvaccinated to arrange their injections as soon as possible.
“It’s not for the lack of access, because there are five options for people,” Mr Pisasale said.
“We can vaccinate people here at the pharmacy, as can the local doctor, the Robinvale District Health Service (RDHS), and Mallee District Aboriginal Service staff.
“Bendigo Health also visit regularly to assist, so there are options.”
Like many parts of the country, Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) were harder to come by in the town.
When Mr Pisasale’s business had been able to stock RATs, they had often been sold out with 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, a 10-person rapid response team travelled from Bendigo to Robinvale this week to help with an increased demand for testing and vaccination in the community.
Robinvale recorded seven new cases yesterday, bringing the active total to 30.
RDHS COVID officer Anita Erlandsen said there had been increased numbers of people lining up to be tested and vaccinated after last week’s death.
“People are fronting up to be tested in probably numbers that are really quite high for our little town,” Ms Erlandsen said.
“We’re getting a lot of inquiries about vaccinations again, so we’re hoping that that that’s going to turn into people actually fronting up to get vaccinated.”
While data at the Victoria Government indicates that second dose vaccination rates for Robinvale’s post code (3549) are above 95 per cent, Ms Erlandsen said the second dose rate wasn’t “as high as we would like it”.
Given the shifting nature of the current outbreak, she said RDHS would update its social media with the latest testing and vaccination clinic times.
