AstraZeneca vaccine rollout begins in Tasmania

Tasmania’s vaccination program is continuing to progress with 6,720 AstraZeneca doses arriving in the state on Sunday, with vaccination clinics to begin in Southern Tasmania this week.

This is fantastic news for our State and

means we’ll be able to vaccinate more Tasmanians sooner, with 400 Tasmanians expected to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine this week as part of clinics at a number of state government run facilities, including the Roy Fagan Centre in Lenah Valley.

They will join the 2,327 Tasmanians already vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine over the first two weeks of the State Government’s program, which has included frontline health workers, paramedics, quarantine and border staff, including police officers. The Pfizer roll-out continues at the Royal Hobart Hospital from today focussing on our frontline workers.

Our health staff continue to do a fantastic job during the ongoing roll out which is one of the largest health logistical exercises in our country’s history, and I thank them for their outstanding efforts to keep Tasmanians safe and bring us closer to a more normal way of living.  

As announced last week, we will bring forward the start of our 1B phase of the roll-out to 19 March.

Tasmanians in the 1B cohort include people aged 70 and over, our remaining health care workers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults, adults with underlying medical conditions and critical and high-risk workers, including defence, police, fire, emergency services (including volunteers), meat processing and fish factory workers.

Further details will be provided later this week on how people in Phase 1b can book their appointments to have their vaccinations at state-run clinics and a number of GP clinics around the State.