Queensland Health has announced that more than 50 pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinics are to be out operating during the school holidays.
Announcing the move, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk stressed that the COVID virus was still wild and dangerous in the community.
“Vaccinations are vital when it comes to protecting our children, along with their parents and grandparents, as we potentially face new waves of the virus,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“We are rolling out a series of targeted pop-up vaccination clinics in shopping centres, schools, town halls and at tourist attractions to ensure vaccines are as accessible as possible for families during the school holidays,” she said.
Minister for Health, Yvette D’Ath said the pop-up vaccination clinics would provide more opportunities for five to 11-year-old children to get vaccinated and for eligible people to get their booster dose.
“More than 50 pop-up or outreach clinics will be established, which will be in addition to more than 30 community-based vaccination centres and hospital sites already providing COVID-19 vaccination services,” Ms D’Ath said.
Chief Health Officer, Dr John Gerrard said he hoped to see an increase in children’s vaccination rates in coming weeks.
“Since vaccinations commenced for five to 11 year olds in early January, more than 43 per cent have received at least one dose and just over 21 per cent have received two doses,” Dr Gerrard said.
“Children’s vaccination rates are lower than we would like,” he said.
“We know that we have very high childhood immunisation rates against diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, hepatitis B and polio, and we’d like to see similar rates for the COVID-19 vaccination.”
Dr Gerrard said while COVID-19 in children was typically a mild disease “we do know that symptoms typically last longer for unvaccinated children, which can be disruptive to a child’s education and activities such as sport”.
