COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:39): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the minister update the house on the progress of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in South Australia?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:39): I would like to thank the honourable member for his question. The Marshall government is committed to ensuring that South Australians continue to have access to opportunities to be vaccinated. In doing so, every South Australian is helping ensure that South Australia continues to enjoy relatively low levels of restrictions and helps prepare us for the next stage of the pandemic and hopefully the easing out of some of the current international and interstate restrictions.

South Australia has seen a number of firsts in the nation in terms of the vaccine rollout. South Australia administered the first AstraZeneca vaccine in the nation, in Murray Bridge. We were the first Australian jurisdiction to open up eligibility to those over 16 in our regions. We were the first to broaden the eligibility to allow those aged between 16 and 39 in our metro areas to book at state vaccination clinics and also the first to allow those in the 12 to 15 age bracket to book in for their jab on Kangaroo Island, when ATAGI recommended that Pfizer was safe for use in 12 to 15 year olds.

Australia's first dual-stream vaccination clinic was opened in Adelaide at Wayville, delivering both Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. Since the opening of Wayville, we have opened further mass vaccination clinics—in the north at Elizabeth, in the south at Noarlunga—to help South Australians who want to be vaccinated, access closer to home.

More than 1.3 million doses of the vaccine have been delivered in South Australia, with over half the population having received a first dose and over 36 per cent now fully vaccinated. This figure is only set to increase as we work in partnership with the commonwealth government, where South Australia is set to receive at least a further 280,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine as part of the UK vaccine swap. We have continued to make it easier for South Australians to access the vaccine so we can move forward to keeping our state safe both economically and in health terms.

Those in the regions are getting greater access to getting a jab. Pharmacies are an integral part of our plan to get the vaccine delivered to where it's needed. Rural, remote and regional pharmacies have been delivering the vaccine in South Australia since July. We would urge all South Australians to take the earliest opportunity they can to be vaccinated, to protect themselves, to protect those they love and to protect the wider community.