AUSTRALIA'S COVID-19 vaccination (COVAX) campaign is gathering pace with the number of doses administered through community pharmacies jumping 245% in the last week.
Data from the Federal Department of Health revealed that as of Fri 20 Aug, pharmacies across the country had administered 182,235 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine since 23 Jul, up from 52,678 on 13 Aug.
Pharmacies in NSW lead the way in terms of number of doses given (115,656), followed by Queensland (31,737) and Victoria (19,208).
Vaccination uptake through ACT pharmacies has surged from 68 on 13 Aug to more than 5,000 last Fri.
Last week also saw the start of the pharmacy COVAX rollout in Tasmania, with 528 shots administered to 20 Aug.
Of the 974,440 doses distributed to pharmacies across the country, 18.7% have been administered, up from 6.13% of the 859,800 that had been made available to the sector at 13 Aug.
The data revealed that pharmacies in the Northern Territory had administered the highest proportion of the doses allocated to the sector (57.4% of 1,200 doses), followed by the ACT, where 31.8% of the 15,800 shots have been administered as of 20 Aug, with NSW ranked third for use of allocation (25.4% of 455,500 doses).
Meanwhile, UNICEF is running its Give the World a Shot campaign, to boost COVAX accessiblity in developing countries.
"We'll only begin to recover when people in lower-income countries have access to vaccines, tests and treatments," UNICEF said.
CLICK HERE to donate.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 24 Aug 21
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 24 Aug 21
