Priceline Yass opened up its Covid-19 vaccination program on Monday to a strong response from the community.
“We put it on social media on Saturday and straight away 50 people jumped on the booking portal and said they wanted to get it done,” said Pharmacist in Charge, Andrew Douglas.
The Yass Valley is currently enduring the most significant threat to the region posed by Covid-19 in over a year. Andrew says there’s no better time to get vaccinated if you’re willing to accept the small risk of severe side effects associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“With cases in Canberra, the more people that can get vaccinated the better.” “There are risks associated with it. It’s just weighing up those risks vs the benefits.” “There are serious side effects but they’re very rare and now they’re much better at treating them,” he said.
The process of getting the vaccine has been a long one for Priceline, as it’s been for many pharmacies. However, that process was abruptly fast-tracked last week, and by Friday afternoon, they had vaccines at their disposal.
“For months they’ve been saying that we will be able to do it. I think 5000 pharmacies in Australia got approved to do it, and it’s just been playing a waiting game since then.”
“They’ve been slowly drip feeding them. I think there were 50 pharmacies in Queensland and 50 in New South Wales.”
“It was then anyone who is eligible, you’ll be able to do it. I think they sent an email last Saturday saying if you order by Monday night, you’ll have them by the end of that week. We got them on Friday afternoon and thought we’d kick off today (Monday) and get started,” said Andrew.
While getting a hold of the vaccine has been somewhat tiresome, Andrew is glad Priceline can now play a role in protecting the community.
“Everyone’s keen to get back to normality aren’t they? If we can do our bit to open up access to the vaccine, then I think that’s only a good thing for the community.” “People younger than 40 are keen to get the vaccine, it’s just a matter of getting it. If there’s more people available to give it then we’ll get the vaccination rates up and protect your family, and protect the community.”
At the moment, Priceline is only accepting online bookings to ensure that all their processes are correct. However, Andrew anticipates that it won’t be long before they can accept walk-ins. Health advice at the minute is that the second dosage of AstraZeneca should be administered anywhere between 8-12 weeks after the first dosage. For those waiting for the Pfizer vaccine, it will not be available at pharmacies. However, the similar mRNA vaccine, Moderna, recently approved in Australia, is expected to arrive in mid-October.
Miller’s Pharmacy are also eager to get the vaccine and were told mid-August would be the likely time frame for them to receive them. However, they remain uncertain about when they’ll be able to join Priceline in offering the service to the local community. Murrumbateman Pharmacy has been administering the vaccine since February, but at this stage, only to the 60+ age group and those considered high risk.