- Published:
- Thursday 22 July 2021
The Victorian Government continues to ramp up efforts to protect vulnerable Victorians from contracting COVID-19 – launching pop-up vaccination clinics for people experiencing homelessness and disadvantage.
Pop-up clinics will begin at services operated by community health organisation CoHealth in Melbourne CBD, Collingwood and Footscray. Each vaccination team will include two community health nurses, a social worker and a worker who has experienced homelessness, with clinics having the capacity to vaccinate 40 people per day.
Dozens more pop-up sites will be established in the weeks ahead across Melbourne’s inner north, inner west and CBD at locations frequented by people experiencing homelessness and disadvantage.
Funded by the Government, the mobile vaccination teams will pop-up at homelessness services, drop-in centres, crisis accommodation facilities, and rooming houses.
The mobile vaccination clinics are being rolled out as part of the C-19 network of five community health organisations – including IPC Health, CoHealth, DPV Health, EACH, and StarHealth.
The Government has commissioned organisations to provide vaccines to people facing disadvantage, including those in public housing, in temporary accommodation, and those experiencing homelessness.
More than 3,500 weekly vaccine doses are being allocated to the C-19 outreach, with local public health units also prioritising additional doses for these cohorts at high risk from COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Pfizer eligibility has been expanded at state-commissioned vaccination centres. Those now eligible to receive first doses of Pfizer regardless of age include: all healthcare workers; all hotel quarantine workers; all international border workers; household contacts (aged 16 years and over) of hotel quarantine and international border workers; residential aged and disability care workers and residents.
Information on how eligible Victorians can access vaccination centres, including wait times at clinics, is available at coronavirus.vic.gov.au/vaccine.
Victoria is leading the country on vaccinations with more than 1.4 million doses administered to date at state-commissioned services, including more than 500,000 doses in the past month.
For more information about the Commonwealth’s vaccination program, visit health.gov.au.
Quote attributable to Minister for Health Martin Foley
“We know that people without a secure home are highly vulnerable to COVID-19, so we are removing any barries they may have in accessing the vaccine to ensure they can get vaccinated quickly.”
Quote attributable to CoHealth CEO Nicole Bartholomeusz
“People experiencing homelessness are arguably our most disadvantaged community members – taking the vaccine to where people are in the community is a critical part of our pandemic response.”