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COVID-19 UPDATE

COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout – Staff, Client and Family Briefing

19 January 2021

On Monday 18 January the SA Health Department conducted a seminar for the Age and Disability Care sector to explain the Commonwealth and State Government plans of rolling out the COVID-19 Vaccine.

People living with disability in Group Homes and their support workers will be in the first Priority to receive the vaccine commencing from 15 February 2021.  The vaccine will be administered either in hospitals or in their Group Home.  More details will be provided to LDS closer to the commencement of vaccines.

Don Frater, head of the vaccine program, gave detailed information on the vaccine and the rollout program, including:

  • Each vial of vaccine will have between 5 to 10 doses, therefore to reduce wastage there needs to be enough bookings to cover each vial
  • A national booking system is being developed and will roll out prior to mid-February
  • Disability care is a key target group
  • Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires 2 doses 3 weeks apart. There are 10 million doses in total and these will be available in mid-February
  • AstraZeneca vaccine requires 2 doses 4 weeks apart. There are 3.8 million doses immediately with another 50 million being prepared out of Melbourne.  These will be available from March
  • Novavax vaccine requires a single dose and will commence rollout in June/July and be in use by September. There are 51 million doses available.

For LDS this means:

  • Staff and residents of disability care facilities will be in Phase 1a commencing mid-February. We expect that this includes the majority of LDS clients and support workers.  This group will receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is 2 doses, 3 weeks apart.
  • For community participation clients living at home it is likely that you will be vaccinated in Phase 1b commencing in March. Other non-frontline LDS staff who interact with clients will also most likely be in the phase.  During this phase people over 60 or those with an underlying medical condition will be vaccination with either the Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca vaccines.  These may be administered at vaccine facilities such as the showgrounds or entertainment centre.
  • From May 2021 the general population will be vaccinated and we envisage that during this phase, based on age, the balance of LDS head office administration staff will be vaccinated with either the Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca vaccines at vaccination centres.
  • From September 2021 the Novavax vaccine will be added to the roster and younger people from the age of 18 will be in this group.
  • At this stage the Government is yet to commit to vaccinating people under the age of 18 without an underlying medical condition.

The process for booking in for your COVID-19 vaccination will be to utilise an online booking system.  It is yet to be determined how you will be notified that you are in a group to be called up for your vaccination.

Post the injection everyone will need to wait 25-30 minutes to ensure no adverse reaction before being allowed to leave the vaccination centre.

Once LDS knows more about the process for both clients and staff members will be update you accordingly.

The COVID-19 vaccine rollout will help to keep our community safe and will be an important element of COVID-19 control along with other, ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.  We thank you in advance for working with us on this process and we will continue to keep you informed as we move forward.

Contact:

Michael Kromwyk, Senior Service Development Manager on mkromwyk@ldssa.org.au

For up to date information on the Coronavirus:

The National Coronavirus Hotline (Operates 24/7) 1800 020 080

The Australian Government Department of Health website

National Disability Insurance Scheme information, advice and updated FAQs website

SA Health COVID-19 Updates

For updates from the Lutheran Church of Australia website

We continue to monitor Government restrictions and responsibilities and will update this page with new information as it becomes available to ensure that all LDS families and friends are receiving the latest updates and information about what we are doing during this period. To ensure you receive the latest information please provide your details on this link - https://www.ldssa.org.au/contact-us/

 

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