COVID-19 update – 28 July 2021

28 July 2021

NSW COVID-19 outbreak

There are now 2574 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 27 July 2021 there have been 379 locally acquired cases in the CESPHN region. The largest concentrations are in the following Local Government Areas (LGAs) Canterbury-Bankstown (169), Georges River (63), Bayside (37) and Sutherland (22).

See here or check our website for information on the latest testing locations within the region. Numerous new pop-up clinics have been established and anyone with symptoms or who has been to identified case locations should get tested. 

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.

Vaccination rollout progress in our region

In the last week, an additional 49,092 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered to people living in the CESPHN region, of these additional doses, 26 per cent were AstraZeneca vaccines and 74 per cent were Pfizer vaccines. As at 25 July 2021, an estimated 17.6 per cent of total doses required have been administered to people living CESPHN.

The below graph shows the estimated proportion of vaccinations given. This graph will be updated on a weekly basis. 

ATAGI and Astra Zeneca latest advice

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation released a statement on 24 July, advising all individuals aged 18 years and above in Greater Sydney to strongly consider getting vaccinated with AstraZeneca. The benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine are greater than the risk of rare side effects for all age groups. Even a single dose of vaccine provides more than 70 per cent protection against hospitalisation (two to three weeks after receiving the dose).

Additionally, people in areas where outbreaks are occurring are recommended to receive their second dose of AstraZeneca 4-8 weeks after the first dose, rather than the usual 12 weeks so that maximal protection can be achieved earlier.

Click here to read the statement in full.

Boosting local vaccine access

Sonic Healthcare have opened a new mass vaccination clinic in the Sydney CBD. These centres specially cater to providing Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations for Aged and Disability Care workers eligible under Phases 1a and 1b of the national vaccination roll-out program. To book, visit Sonic Health website.

Primary care vaccination clinics, including general practices and Commonwealth vaccination clinics, are expected to prioritise aged care workers and make a vaccination appointment within 14 days of a request to be vaccinated. From 1 August appointments should be made within 7 days.

New COVID-19 resources

This glossary was developed to help community organisations, translators and interpreters, bilingual workers, and community leaders to better understand and communicate about vaccine development and implementation.

NSW Health has provided the following multilingual resources explaining ‘what is a close or casual contact? Can this be reformatted as per example below

• Assyrian: What is a close contact? | What is a secondary close contact? | What is a casual contact?
• Arabic: What is a close contact? | What is a secondary close contact? | What is a casual contact?
• Mandarin: What is a close contact?
• Self-isolation close contact factsheets: Arabic | Bangla | Chinese-Simplified | Chinese-Traditional | Dari | Dinka | English | Farsi | Greek | Hazaragi | Hindi | Italian | Korean | Nepali | Punjabi | Spanish | Tamil | Thai | Turkish | Urdu | Vietnamese
• Casual contact factsheets: Arabic | Assyrian | Bangla | Chinese-Traditional | Dari | Dinka | Farsi | Greek | Hazaragi | Hindi | Italian | Korean | Nepali | Punjabi | Spanish | Tamil | Thai | Turkish | Urdu | Vietnamese

Vaccine Eligibility Checker

In response to the query ‘where is my local vaccine provider’, the Vaccine Eligibility Checker is the best resource. Patients will have to answer a number of questions before being able to filter through their local practices by selecting the red make a booking button.

The Vaccine Eligibility Checker has also been translated into some community languages: Chinese – simplified and traditional, Arabic, Vietnamese, Italian, Greek, Punjabi, Korean, Turkish, Bengali, Serbian, Khmer, Spanish, Hindi, Assyrian.

Call-out for GPs, pharmacists and nurses to assist in vaccination

We are compiling a register of GPs and authorised pharmacist and nurse immunisers who are available to work shifts in COVID vaccination clinics. Please complete this form if you are interested.

Workshops and webinars

The CESPHN webinar recording is now available: Fighting the COVID-19 Delta variant. This webinar, presented by Associate Professor Nicholas Wood, Associate Director, Clinical Research and Services, NCIRS Senior Staff Specialist discusses COVID-19 vaccine risks and benefits, vaccine effectiveness, emerging data around myocarditis, and current data around mixing COVID-19 vaccines. Local GPs and RNs also share practical tips and insights on how they run their vaccination clinics.

The National COVID Vaccine Taskforce is holding a third Culturally, Ethnically and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Communities Vaccine Roundtable with health practitioners on Friday 6 August 2021 from 1.30 – 3.30 pm AEST. If you would like to attend please email CALDCOVID-19AGSecretariat@Health.gov.au by COB Friday 30 July 2021.

Free online workshop: Enhancing conversations about COVID-19 vaccines. Frontline community workers providing services to multicultural communities in South Eastern Sydney are invited to a free online workshop to build skills to communicate effectively about COVID-19 and the vaccine program. This workshop will be presented by Assoc Prof Holly Seale, from the School of Population Health, University of NSW, and Deputy Chair of the Collaboration on Social Science and Immunisation.

When: 10.00 am to 12.00 pm, Wednesday 11 August 2021

For more information, and to RSVP to reserve your place and obtain the Zoom link, please contact: Joanne.Corcoran@health.nsw.gov.au.

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