The latest information on the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination schedule in central west Queensland has been announced, listing dates for Barcaldine and Alpha residents.
The Central West Hospital and Health Service's vaccination team will be in Barcaldine on March 18-19 and again from March 24-26, taking place at the shire hall.
The team will visit Alpha on March 22-23, in between the two Barcaldine visits, and will be situated at the Alpha Town Hall.
The residents of the small town of Aramac became the first in Queensland's central west to be vaccinated against the virus, when a total of 105 jabs were administered to both medical staff and community residents above the age of 18 on Monday.
The team moved on to Muttaburra and Jericho on Tuesday and Wednesday.
One of the first people to be vaccinated was new nurse graduate Kate Whelan, who started her nursing career at Barcaldine Multipurpose Health Service just last month and who accompanied the vaccination team to Aramac.
"It's very exciting to be a part of Queensland's largest ever coordinated vaccination effort," Ms Whelan said. "Being vaccinated is one of the easiest things we can all do to keep our communities and loved ones safe and I urge everyone to do so."
No plan for the schedule beyond Barcaldine next week has been revealed yet by CWHHS and CEO Jane Hancock had no comment as to why this was not available.
"We will keep each community informed as each vaccination clinic is confirmed," she said.
She said it wasn't unusual for the program to be rolling out in regions that had never experienced a COVID case, or before the vaccination program's phase 1B for over 70s had begun generally.
"Just because a region - like the Central West, or Torres and Cape, or North West - has not had a single COVID case does not mean cases could not occur in the future," she said.
Queensland's opposition has been pushing the state government to reveal how many vaccines were in Queensland fridges and how many have been administered each day.
Opposition spokesman for Open Data Brent Mickelberg said that NSW had reached its vaccination target of 37,500 in the first three weeks while Queensland had vaccinated 21,861.
"The state government must be open and transparent about this so Queenslanders can build trust in the vaccine rollout," he said.
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Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
