COVID-19 update – 1 September 2021

1 September 2021

NSW COVID-19 Outbreak

There are now 22,308 locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in NSW reported since 16 June 2021. Click here for all the latest information relating to the NSW outbreak including case locations and alerts. Over the past two weeks to 29 August 2021 there have been 1,675 locally acquired cases in the CESPHN region. The largest concentrations are in the following Local Government Areas (LGAs) Canterbury-Bankstown (660), Sydney (177) Bayside (176) Georges River (154),,  Randwick (124)  Inner West (123) Strathfield (91) and Canada Bay (58).

See here or check our website for information on the latest testing locations and new community pop up vaccination locations.

Vaccination

In the last week, CESPHN estimates an additional 107,807 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered to people living in the CESPHN region. Of these additional doses, 22 per cent were AstraZeneca vaccines and 78 per cent were Pfizer vaccines. You can view vaccination uptake by postcode here and by local government area here.

Under Operation COVID Shield – Australia’s National COVID Vaccination Plan  National COVID Vaccination Plan it is expected that there will be greatly increased Pfizer vaccine supplies from October onwards and this will be supplemented with the arrival of the Moderna vaccine

It is expected that not only will more practices be able to participate in administering COVID vaccines, but those practices will also be able to receive greater amounts of vaccine.  Given these anticipated increases in vaccine supply in October, practices should consider what additional resources they might need to put in place if they want to administer larger amounts of vaccine in the months ahead.  

CESPHN has become aware that there some patients who require vaccination but who are unable to attend a vaccination hub and are dependent on in home medical care. We are concerned that these patients may miss out on vaccination and draw this to the attention of GPs to ensure our most vulnerable are vaccinated.  

Free infection control advice

CESPHN is pleased to offer general practices and community pharmacies the opportunity to have a specialised one-on-one consultation session with an experienced primary care infection control educator.This consult will enable your practice/pharmacy to:

• Send questions prior to the consultation session about your practice
• Ask questions on infection control that relates to your practice

Sessions will be via ‘Zoom’ and will be up to 50 minutes in duration and can be recorded for later use. The aim of these sessions is to support practices and community pharmacies to  ensure they have the strongest infection  procedures in place, and provide tips for improvement where needed.

If you would like more information or would like to book a consultation, please email your interest to coronavirus@cesphn.com.au and in the subject line write: “Yes I would like infection control advice”.

Additional PPE available

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) packages including surgical and N95/P2 masks, gloves, gowns and goggles will be made available for community pharmacies and those GPs who continue to see their patients within their practices. PPE guidelines can be found here. CESPHN will continue to distribute these supplies. To order PPE for your practice or pharmacy click here.

Pfizer for adolescents aged 12 -15 years

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation now supports the use of COVID-19 Comirnaty (Pfizer) vaccine in all adolescents between 12 and 15 years of age. See ATAGI Statement and Recommendations. From 13 September, bookings will be available through GPs, Commonwealth Vaccination Clinics and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations. People aged 12 to 15 who are in a priority group can book now.

Vaccination hubs open now

Dedicated aged care vaccine hubs administering Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations are now available in Ashfield, Burwood, and Rosebery by calling 1300 542 444. These hubs are for residential, and community and in-home aged care workers.

There is a NEW HealthCare Australia Aged and Disability Sector COVID Vaccination hub established at Engadine Community Services as of this week. The Vaccination hub will be dedicated for people with disability, disability support workers and aged care workers and will be administrating Pfizer.

This hub will be open 28 Aug – 24 September (Mon-Sun) and 27 Sep – 29 October (Mon-Fri). It is located at Engadine Community Centre, 1034-1036 Old Princes Hwy, Engadine.

Eligibility and booking information: 

People eligible to be vaccinated through the HCA program are:  

• NDIS participants (12 years +) 
• NDIS Staff Members / Carers (Paid or Unpaid, 16 years +)
• Aged Care Facility Staff (Paid or Unpaid, 16 years +)
  • Including ancillary staff such as chefs, cleaners etc (16 years +)

Book both your second and first dose appointments at: https://22214.covidhub.com.au. For more information contact: HealthCare Australia, 1300 542 444.

NSW Health has walk-in AstraZeneca vaccination hubs at the following locations:

• Rockdale Town Hall, Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm
• Bankstown Sports Club, 8am to 5pm daily
• Hurstville Entertainment Centre, Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm

Moderna mandatory e-learning module

The Department of Health has released an online learning module on the use of Spikevax (Moderna) COVID-19 vaccines in Australia. Access training here.

Call for GPs, pharmacists, nurses and other health professionals to assist in vaccination

We are maintaining a register of GPs, pharmacists, nurses and other allied health professionals who are available to work shifts in COVID vaccination clinics. Please complete this form if you are interested. Thank you to all those of you have already registered.

COVID-19 live stream update for GPs

Join the latest COVID-19 vaccine live stream update for GPs. The panel will provide latest key updates and answer participants’ questions live about the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Get involved by submitting questions and comments!

Details: Thursday 2 September, 11:30am (AEDT) | Click link to join

Catch up on previous webinars.

New resources 

• COVID-19 vaccination – Long-term effects of COVID-19 (31 August 2021): This fact sheet explains the potential long-term effects of COVID-19.
• COVID-19 vaccination – COVID-19 vaccines: common questions (31 August 2021): This fact sheet provides accurate, evidence-based answers to common questions about COVID-19 vaccines. It also answers questions for multicultural communities.
• COVID-19 vaccination – COVID-19 vaccines are free for everyone (other languages) (29 August 2021): This language set contains translations of a poster which explains that COVID-19 vaccines are free for everyone in Australia.
• Vaccination uptake by and by local government area