Pharmacy Daily | Dominos falling slowly on COVAX

NSW, Victoria and the Northern Territory Governments are all expected to announce that they will approve a limited number of rural and outer suburban pharmacies as COVID-19 vaccination (COVAX) sites in the coming weeks.

The reports come just more than a week after 49 rural and regional pharmacies in Queensland joined the COVAX program.

Sources have told Pharmacy Daily that 26 pharmacies in rural NSW could be given the green light to administer COVAX by Fri, while Pharmacy Guild of Australia Victorian Branch President, Anthony Tassone, confirmed 15 stores across the state have been assessed as possible locations in Victoria.

The NT Government is believed to be considering two sites to begin pharmacy-based COVAX services.

Tassone told Pharmacy Daily that the Guild has been in "frequent and ongoing contact with the Victorian Department of Health and government about activating community pharmacies to deliver COVAX".

"We have been advised by the Department of Health that after undertaking an assessment of identifying areas with limited patient access to COVAX, they had identified 15 locations across the state; eight in regional areas and seven in outer-suburban areas," he said.

"They are in the process of working with the Commonwealth to have the necessary vaccine stock allocation for pharmacies in these areas to onboard them hopefully in the coming weeks.

"The Guild has not been advised where these locations specifically are - but expect to be informed very soon.

"Whilst getting 'some players on the field' is a start, it is the Guild's view that all pharmacies really should be activated immediately with over 800 pharmacies across the state [of Victoria] and almost 4,000 nationally deemed 'suitable' to participate in the COVAX program."

Meanwhile, Guild National President, Trent Twomey, told the Australian Financial Review that Western Australia has also made a request to the Federal Government to have community pharmacies activated as access points for the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Twomey added that coordination between State and Federal Governments needed to improve, warning, "the rollout of the COVAX strategy for the country is starting to fracture".