Hundreds of people have joined the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic by receiving their jab at Australia’s first drive-through COVID vaccination hub in Melton.
Run by Western Health, the site at the former Bunnings Warehouse site on Barries Road was launched last week, initially taking bookings from Victorians eligible to receive Pfizer.
The site has been complementing existing state vaccination centres and general practices participating in the Commonwealth vaccination program.
Following detailed advice from ATAGI at the request of the National COVID Vaccine Taskforce, careful planning was undertaken to account for the logistical differences between walk-in and drive-through clinics.
Drivers and passengers are screened for eligibility and symptoms at the carpark entry before proceeding in batches of 10 cars to an identification check-in point.
After receiving their vaccination they remain in their car for the 15-minute observation period before exiting the site.
The state government also announced on Friday that it would be significantly expanding access to vaccines across all state vaccination centres and scaling up capacity across the state-run system with more drive-through and mobile clinics.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the aim was to administer one million new doses across the next five weeks.
To meet this target more than 200,000 doses will be administered each week until September 19, with sites operating with extended hours and with an additional 150 vaccination booths coming online.
“There are a million things that we miss about life before the pandemic – and each of those is a reason to get vaccinated,” Mr Andrews said.
“Victorians have shown us that they are ready and willing to come forward and get vaccinated, with over 98,000 doses administered in our state-run system since Monday and more than 10,000 more doses of AstraZeneca than the week before.”
Health minister Martin Foley said the government is adding more vaccination centres, more booths to existing sites and more bookings in the system for AstraZeneca to help reach that goal of one million vaccine doses in the next five weeks.
“We hope this campaign will encourage anyone who hasn’t had their vaccination yet, to come forward and get it done as quickly as possible – you will be protecting your friends, family and your entire community.”
Benjamin Millar
