COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout

Ms LUETHEN (King) (14:37): My question is to the Minister for Education, representing the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the minister update the house on vaccinations in South Australia?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (14:38): I am pleased to have this question—

Mr Odenwalder interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Elizabeth!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —from the member for King, which is the first question today about what we have done, about finding out how the South Australian government is meeting our responsibilities under the vaccination rollout and what—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —have been the achievements of our medical professionals here in South Australia so far. It's quite a different question from those asked earlier. As the Premier identified, South Australia has led the world in relation to responding to the pandemic, record testing, world first, and saw early world achievements and things like drive-through clinics. In relation to meeting the responsibilities the South Australian government has under the vaccination rollout thus far, we are also very proud of the work undertaken by our health professionals.

I commend the Minister for Health and all who are involved in the operation for their terrific work. We are bringing the same careful approach to our vaccination rollout and we are being informed by public health advice. We will at every stage take the advice of our public health professionals, and we will work with the commonwealth government and SA Health and the public health officers. We know that the vaccine is safe. We know it's effective. We know it is free for all South Australians and we confirm for those who are interested that it is not mandatory.

In line with the commonwealth government's phase 1a, SA Health clinics to this point have administered more than 8,500 doses of the vaccine to medi-hotel and Airport staff and frontline healthcare workers, including workers at testing clinics and emergency departments. As outlined by the Premier earlier, the AstraZeneca vaccine was delivered in South Australia first out of all states in Australia—that done at Murray Bridge.

This was enabled to be undertaken as a result of our rapid deployment. Within 36 hours of receiving the vaccine here in South Australia it was able to be administered. The early shipping of that AstraZeneca vaccine by the Morrison Liberal government has allowed us to accelerate the rural and regional clinics, extending our reach beyond the metropolitan area sooner than expected. As members should be aware—probably are but may certainly be interested to be aware if they are not—the AstraZeneca vaccine benefits from not requiring the extreme cold storage arrangements that the Pfizer vaccine requires, thus enabling it to be more rapidly deployed in regional communities and indeed remote communities here in South Australia.

We have to this stage already opened regional clinics in Coober Pedy, Mount Gambier, Murray Bridge, Port Augusta health, Port Lincoln, Port Pirie health and in Whyalla health. In those regional clinics in particular, to this date more than 1,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered, making sure our country areas are also receiving that important protection against this pandemic.

Work is being undertaken of course by the commonwealth, alongside our work, in relation to a number of those remote communities as well and some of those other frontline workers. The SA Ambulance Service (SAAS) has also begun vaccination of our frontline paramedics thanks to the arrival of AstraZeneca, and we will continue to work with our health experts to deliver the COVID-19 vaccine to South Australia.

I know that there has been material circulated—I saw some in letterboxes just in the last couple of days—that puts around some very, very unfortunate misinformation that is adverse to public health outcomes in South Australia. I urge all members of parliament to do whatever they can in our communities to encourage South Australians, when we get the call in whatever part of the community we are, whatever our demographic, once the vaccine is available, I encourage all South Australians and I encourage all members to encourage their communities to take the vaccine. It is safe, it is effective, it is free. It is not mandatory.