Wimmera pharmacists to join COVID-19 vaccine push in Victoria

From this month, pharmacies across the region will begin administering thousands of AstraZeneca doses to those willing to roll up their sleeves.

Pharmacist Carlie Streeter, owner of Horsham Amcal Pharmacy, said the expansion of the rollout to pharmacies was a long time coming.

"It was originally going to be done in bundles, but now they're just ripped the band-aid off so to speak and opened it up to all pharmacies across the board," she said.

"All pharmacies will be administering AstraZeneca, and anyone over the age of 18 is currently eligible to have the vaccine.

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"It's going to take a little while to get used to the workflow. It's slightly different and more involved than a flu vaccine; and anyone under the age of 60 has to give informed consent when they receive AstraZeneca."

Ms Streeter said pharmacies had been receiving interest about vaccinations for a while.

"People are sick of waiting, they just want to get a vaccine. We're supportive of that - the sooner the whole of Australia gets vaccinated, the sooner everybody's protected and hopefully these lockdown situations will reduce," she said.

"At the moment I think everyone is struggling with that. I'm particularly wary of the impact its' having on people's mental health, and the impact it's having on small businesses across the country.

"Younger people in particular, people under the age of 40, don't want to wait anymore. We've had a lot of interest from that population who are just happy to have AstraZeneca."

Across the Wimmera, pharmacies are readying administer thousands of AstraZeneca jabs however the logistics of the rollout haven't always been smooth.

Murtoa Pharmacy's Kai Kerai said that while, the pharmacy would be offering vaccinations, there were a few teething issues to sort out.

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"Once we have a little bit more stock, a little bit more flow and rhythm we will have a booking channel available, possibly even on our Facebook page where people can hop on and book a vaccination," he said.

Mr Kerai encouraged interested people to call the pharmacy to book their vaccination.

Phuong Tu, owner of both the Dimboola and Kaniva Pharmacies, noted that pharmacies were at different stages of preparedness in their rollouts.

While the pharmacy in Dimboola was waiting to see if their application to administer vaccinations was accepted, Kaniva was getting ready to administer doses by the end of the August.

"We've got the stock in, we're just waiting on a couple of other supplies to come through. We're looking to start vaccinating on August 23," Ms Tu said.

"There won't be any walk-ins. It has to be done via bookings. We've allocated a couple of hours aside, three days a week to vaccinate."

Victoria's north west statistical area, which includes the Wimmera, is on par with the national average with 45.7 per cent of the eligible population aged 16 and above receiving at least one dose.

However the region lags behind other parts of regional Victoria, such as the rollouts in Geelong and Bendigo.

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