Get your booster, says COVID boss

THE region’s mass vaccination clinic at the Mercure Hotel on Main Road received a special guest last week as the state’s COVID Commander, Jeroen Weimar, visited the site.

With less than half of Victorians having received their third dose of COVID-19 vaccine, Mr Weimar said there was a lot more work to be done.

“We really encourage everybody to make their third dose a bit of a priority at this time,” Mr Weimar said.

“We’d really like for them to get organised and get their third dose done.”

With the educational year underway, the staff at the Grampians Public Health Unit are also reaching out directly to schools and organising afternoon clinics to help get boosters to eligible children aged five to 11.

Vaccination manager Lisa Oro is part of the team helping get kids their second and third jabs.

“Now kids are back at school, we’re seeing the numbers of course going down during the day so we’re looking at different ways to deliver the vaccine,” she said.

Medical director of the GPHU, Professor Rosemary Aldrich, said Western Victoria is doing its part in reaching the statewide vacation targets and keeping the virus at bay.

“The people of the Grampians can be very confident that their civic leaders, their health leaders, their cultural leaders are all working very closely together in order to be able to keep us as safe as possible,” she said.

While vaccination was the focus, Mr Weimar reiterated that testing and detection were also key.

He urged people with symptoms to head to the Creswick Road testing site if they were unable to access rapid antigen tests.

“The wait times are really short here in Ballarat. You can pretty much drive up and get your test done or walk up and get your test done,” he said.

“You’ll have your result 93 per cent of the time the next day.”