Pharmacy Daily | ‘About bloody time’: ACT

PHARMACISTS in the ACT are looking forward to joining the COVID-19 vaccination (COVAX) rollout, following the Commonwealth Government's decision to activate all eligible stores, with Pharmacy Guild of Australia Territory Branch President, Simon Blacker, saying "it's about bloody time".

Following the National Cabinet decision on 22 Apr to defer the expansion of COVAX services through all community pharmacies, with the exception of some in regional, rural and remote areas, ACT stores had been excluded from the rollout, until Prime Minister Scott Morrison's announcement yesterday.

Blacker told Pharmacy Daily that more than 60 Canberra-based pharmacies had been approved as COVAX sites by the Commonwealth Department of Health and the Guild anticipated "the vast majority of them will say yes to the invitation to join the rollout".

"From our perspective it's just good to be involved," he said.

"We've been waiting on the sidelines [for months] - about bloody time is one way to sum it up.

"Because the [Federal] Government had said regional, rural and remote [areas were the priority] the ACT Government was getting nowhere with the Commonwealth.

"ACT pharmacies had been frustrated, but we understood the ACT Government's challenges whilst they were waiting on National Cabinet."

With the rollout set to commence, Blacker said the next step would be for the ACT Government to amend legislation to empower pharmacists to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine to patients under 60 years, as current regulations in the jurisdiction only authorise the shot for the over 60s.

He also called on Territory legislators to lower the age limit for patients receiving mRNA vaccines following the Therapeutic Goods Administration's decision to grant provisional approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech jab to be given to adolescents aged 12 years and older (see page one for more).