Pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinics for people experiencing homelessness and disadvantage will be launched in Victoria, the state’s health minister has announced today.
Minister Martin Foley said the pop-up clinics would begin at services operated by community health organisation CoHealth in Melbourne CBD, Collingwood and Footscray. Each vaccination team will include two community health nurses, a social worker and a worker who has experienced homelessness, with clinics having the capacity to vaccinate 40 people per day.
“We know that people without a secure home are highly vulnerable to COVID-19, so we are removing any barriers they may have in accessing the vaccine to ensure they can get vaccinated quickly,” said Mr Foley.
He said dozens more pop-up sites would be established in the weeks ahead across Melbourne’s inner north, inner west and CBD at locations frequented by people experiencing homelessness and disadvantage.
“People experiencing homelessness are arguably our most disadvantaged community members – taking the vaccine to where people are in the community is a critical part of our pandemic response,” CoHealth CEO, Nicole Bartholomeusz.
Funded by the Government, the mobile vaccination teams will pop-up at homelessness services, drop-in centres, crisis accommodation facilities, and rooming houses.
The mobile vaccination clinics are being rolled out as part of the C-19 network of five community health organisations – including IPC Health, CoHealth, DPV Health, EACH, and StarHealth.
More than 3,500 weekly vaccine doses are being allocated to the C-19 outreach, with local public health units also prioritising additional doses for these cohorts at high risk from COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Pfizer eligibility has been expanded at state-commissioned vaccination centres. All healthcare workers, hotel quarantine and international border workers (and their household contacts aged 16 and over) and residential aged and disability care workers and residents are now eligible for Pfizer, regardless of age.
Information on how eligible Victorians can access vaccination centres, including wait times at clinics, is available at coronavirus.vic.gov.au/vaccine.
