Question Time

School Vaccination Hubs

Mrs PEARCE (King) (14:21): My question is to the Minister for Education, Training and Skills. Can the minister update the house on the rollout of vaccination hubs in schools?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:22): I thank the member for King for her question and the very strong advocacy she has provided for her community over the last few years to make sure that we do everything we possibly can to protect our community from the spread of COVID-19.

What we know is that the most effective step, the most effective measure we can take to make sure that we do protect ourselves from the effects of COVID-19, is to get vaccinated to reduce the severity of the illness and also reduce the risk of hospitalisation or in some cases, unfortunately, death. In South Australia, everyone over five years of age is eligible for free vaccination, and it has been very pleasing to see the very strong uptake in that demographic. In fact, 93 per cent people are double-dosed and 71 per cent of people are triple-dosed. However, we unfortunately have a very different story amongst the years five to 11 age group, with only 59 per cent of that age group having had a first dose.

In my travels across the state, and certainly in the last couple of years, I have spoken to members of my community and asked their feelings about whether or not they are going to get their young children dosed. I don't put it down to any kind of vaccine hesitancy; in fact, in most cases the parents themselves are double if not triple-vaxxed. I think we can probably put it down to the fact that there is an assumption that children will have more minor symptoms of COVID-19, which of course in some cases is true.

What we know, and Professor Spurrier reiterated this point again this week, and it is a very important one, is that in some cases children can develop a much more serious case or illness and can in some cases suffer long-term effects as well. For that reason it's important that we do absolutely anything we can in our power to make sure that we make it as simple as we can for those families to get their children of five to 11 years vaccinated. The other reason it is so important is that, although kids often will have milder symptoms, they are very good at taking it home and spreading it to mum and dad and to grandma and grandpa, who are often in a far more vulnerable category than the child themselves.

I was very pleased this week to join Professor Spurrier at Marryatville Primary School, where we announced that we will be opening 40 vaccination hubs across South Australia—40 primary school COVID-19 vaccination hubs. Ten of those will be in regional South Australia and six will be at non-government school sites. Across four weeks there will be 10 hubs operational each week. They will operate on the Friday and Saturday of those weeks and then they will return nine weeks later to be able to administer a second dose.

On the Friday, the first day of each week when these vaccination hubs will be operational, older siblings of the children who go to the school will be able to come and get a vaccination as well and then on the Saturday the clinics will be open to the broader community. Most importantly, in terms of the effectiveness of these vaccination hubs, no bookings are going to be needed so we will make it as simple as we possibly can for these families just to come along with their young kids and get a vaccination.

On Saturday 28 May, we will also be holding Community Vaccination Day, which will provide additional vaccination spots across the state and we will be partnering with local councils in those areas to provide free public transport to make sure that those people in our community who might find it hard to get to these new clinics can get there simply under their own steam or with the help of the local council.

We are bringing vaccination clinics to the communities in South Australia that need them most and we are doing everything we can to make it as easy as possible for families to protect their kids and the broader community from the spread of COVID-19.