Aged care facilities in Orange will be among the first sites to get access to and begin administering COVID-19 jabs next week, with the federal government beginning the first phase of Pfizer vaccine roll-out on Monday morning.
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The roll-out begins almost a year to the day since the first diagnosed case in Australia with around 80,000 doses set to be released in the first week - 30,000 are allocated for workers and residents of aged-care facilities.
Orange facilities are among those, Federal Member for Calare Andrew Gee confirmed, and based on health.gov.au information will be the only aged-care sites across the Central West to be included in the opening week of the roll-out.
Aged care facilities, in Orange area, are on the list for week one. Other communities in the region will follow after that.
- Federal Member for Calare Andrew Gee
"The arrival of the vaccine is the beginning of the end of this pandemic. It gives us hope and confidence that our lives and our economy will slowly return to normal," Mr Gee said, labelling this a turning point in the battle against the virus.
"Starting early next week, our most vulnerable elderly residents in nursing homes, people with disabilities in residential facilities and our front-line workers will be first cab off the rank to receive the Pfizer vaccine.
"Aged care facilities, in Orange area, are on the list for week one. Other communities in the region will follow after that."
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The federal government is making arrangements for more than 500 medical professionals to travel to towns and suburbs around the country to deliver vaccines, with consent forms being circulated and signed prior to patients getting the jab.
"This is the single biggest and most complex vaccine roll out that our nation has ever undertaken," Mr Gee said.
"It is important to remember that the vaccines have been cleared as being safe and effective with clinical trials indicating that the Pfizer vaccine would prevent symptomatic COVID-19 in 95 per cent of recipients.
"Compared to the rest of the world, we are very fortunate that Australia is now in a situation where we have no community transmission of COVID-19 and that means that the roll out of the vaccine can take place in a methodical, safe and effective fashion."
Approximately 50,000 vaccines will be made available for states and territories for hotel quarantine and border workers, along with frontline healthcare workers. The initial vaccination hubs in this context are in Sydney, with others to be announced in the coming weeks.
In total, it's expected at least 60,000 jabs will be administered across the country by the end of the February with others to be continually administered afterwards.
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