Federal Member for Robertson, Lucy Wicks MP said having over 55 GP clinics administering Pfizer by the end of the September was important, but to address the currently bottleneck we need an appropriate amount of Pfizer allocated to our region by the NSW Government.
“Central Coast residents are doing their bit to hit the 70% and 80% targets, with 72% people having had their first dose and around 40% having had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine,” Ms Wicks said.
“In fact, across our region, of those who have received one COVID-19 vaccine, almost one in three people (31%) have had a Pfizer vaccine and more than two in three (69%) have had Vaxzevria (formerly known as AstraZeneca).
NSW is set to receive an additional 1.38 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine following an agreement between Australia, the UK and also with Singapore this month. Nationally, this is on top of the 4.9 million Pfizer doses being delivered in September, followed by a further nine million doses being delivered in October.
The Federal Government’s vaccine roll-out is supported by the NSW Government, who operate the Gosford and Wyong Hospital sites on the Central Coast.
Ms Wicks said with additional doses heading to NSW from overseas, it is time the Central Coast gets our fair share of Pfizer.
“To date, the NSW Government have received almost 3 million doses of Pfizer, which is enough to vaccinate around 45% of the state with a first dose. However, I am advised the Central Coast Local Health District has not received an increase in Pfizer allocations since July 2021.
“We understand the challenge faced by the Central Coast Local Health District given they have not seen the benefit of increased Pfizer doses in NSW, coupled with a wait list for Pfizer of over 30,000 people.
From the NSW Government allocation of Pfizer, the Central Coast has been receiving about half (2.1%) of the Pfizer we would expect based on our population size (4.8%), which has left a shortfall of about 30,000 doses locally.
“I thank the NSW Premier for her determination to stamp out the Delta outbreak in Western and Southwest Sydney, but its time our region gets back the 30,000 Pfizer doses that were taken to fight the virus on the front-line.
