A SUNRAYSIA GP giving vaccines to children aged five to 11 says the rollout has been “clunky” and that supply is so far failing to meet demand, just over two-weeks out from the start of the new school year.
Mildura’s total active case numbers dropped to 610 Tuesday, after the LGA reported only 32 new infections, following 154 cases Monday.
Mildura’s case numbers have tripled in the past week and the LGA now ranks fifth in regional Victoria for total cases per 100,000 residents (1093.6).
While the Bass Coast has the highest rate of cases per 100,000 residents with 1621.7, Swan Hill, which had 154 new cases Tuesday including 48 in Robinvale, has the third-highest rate with 1176.8.
Meanwhile, numbers in Wentworth LGA remained stable after total cases in the preceding four-week period dropped by one to 76.
The climb in infections has been a “bit of a shock to the system” for the Sunraysia community, said Merbein Family Medical Practice’s Dr John Buckley, who had a busy Monday to start the paediatric vaccine rollout.
Dr Buckley said his practice administered 99 out of a total 100 vaccines in its first allocation Monday, but it was not enough.
He said there had been strong demand with the school year starting in just over two weeks, but the clinic would have to wait longer for more vaccines as the delivery of another allocation would no longer come this week.
“We were promised a delivery in the next few days, and it looks like that has been altered by forces higher than us,” Dr Buckley said.
“And despite our best endeavours and … calling up promises, it’s not happening.”
However, Dr Buckley said it had been a positive first day and parents and children had been “grateful” to receive the vaccine.
But while the situation would “work itself out in the long run”, for the time-being he said he, as would many other GPs in the area, would have to wait for supply.
“It’s the toilet paper crisis all over again, but it’s a more serious one in that we’ve got people who want to get their kids vaccinated before they go to school,” he said.
Victorian Premier Dan Andrews announced on Tuesday that 3000 children across the state had received the vaccine on the first day of the rollout and another 43,000 bookings were available.
The Department of Health deputy secretary Naomi Bromley said 30 pop-up school vaccination clinics would be rolled out in coming weeks, including a clinic at Mildura Primary School.
The latest announcements from the Andrews Government follows a slow start to the vaccine rollout out in Sunraysia.
When Sunraysia Daily contacted local GPs to ask if they were administering vaccines to five to 11 year olds on the first day of the paediatric vaccine rollout, only three of eight providers contacted said they were running clinics.
Several providers said they would begin administering vaccines on January 17 and 18, including the state-run clinic operated by Sunraysia Community Health Services, which started taking bookings on Tuesday.
Some clinics reported not having vaccine bookings available until January 31 and 7 February due to the high demand, paediatric vaccine availability and resourcing limitations as they tried to satisfy bookings for the adult booster vaccine.
The state-wide booking system for paediatric vaccines has experienced issues, and with the current outbreak expected to peak in the coming weeks, the Victorian Government has not yet released an update on whether there will be any changes to the return to school, scheduled for January 31.
