Elsie Adamo
COVID-19 vaccine boosters are now easier to book in the Limestone Coast, with shorter waiting periods for appointments than a month ago.
In early January, locals booking in would have waited five weeks to secure an appointment at one of the Limestone Coast Local Health Network sites in Mount Gambier, but same week appointments now appear to be available for those seeking boosters.
Limestone Coast Local Heath Network (LCLHN) executive director of medical services Dr Elaine Pretorius said the extra slots can be attributed to staff levels improving.
“Staff are coming back from leave, we had some people off because they had Covid or were close contacts,” Dr Pretorius said.
“Our staffing has improved, our vaccination supply is good so that means that we can open more spots.”
There were 51,640 total doses administered in the Limestone Coast in 2021, and in 2022 over 10,000 vaccine doses have gone into arms already.
Of those, 6955 were boosters, and 1672 were doses for five to 11-year-olds.
“That is a number we are very proud of, and I think the community should be proud, it is a marvellous effort,” Dr Pretorius said.
“The uptake has been fantastic for the boosters, we have been pretty busy,”
“I think that in general people from the Limestone Coast have really worked very well with us, and as you can see from our numbers that is a really impressive amount.”
With more availability, now is the time to book according to Dr Pretorius.
“I am encouraging anyone who is eligible for their booster to book in,” she said.
“For mums and dads who are still a bit hesitant about getting their children vaccinated I would encourage them to consider the vaccine.
“We have seen how effective it has been in reducing hospitalisations and I think we should continue this way.”
Dr Pretorius said Covid-19 cases in the region have settled, and she is hopeful numbers will continue to decline.
The network will also move into a recovery plan, which will allow for services that were originally on hold to be restarted.
“The first of that is the elective surgery resuming next week, so we will be back in full swing of elective surgery as of Monday,” Dr Pretorius said.
President of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA), Dr Megan Belot, said that getting your third dose was the best line of defence against the Omicron variant.
“The percentage of the population that is double vaxxed is outstanding,” Dr Belot said.
“But when it comes to the third dose, rural doctors are keen to see the numbers go up for their communities and are concerned demand has been plateauing.
“That means, however, that appointments are available!”
According to SA Health as of Wednesday boosters have been administered to 62.6 per cent of eligible South Australians and 46.1 per cent of South Australians aged 16 and over.
Neither SA Health or the national Department of Health could provide data on booster vaccination rates by LGA or Local Health Network region, despite providing similar statistics for first and second doses.
