Page 4026 - Week 13 - Thursday, 2 December 2021
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As of 24 November, Aspen Medical has delivered almost 2,000 vaccine doses to marginalised and hard-to-reach community members. I was advised this morning that we have now topped the 2,000 mark. Vaccination opportunities were targeted to people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people living with disability, and their family and carers, LGBTIQ+ community members and people living in insecure accommodation.
Canberra Health Services pop-up clinics have targeted regions with lower than average vaccine uptake across the ACT. Since 27 September, pop-up clinics have administered 1,470 vaccine doses, while CHS has administered more than 1,400 doses through outreach to patients in settings such as hospitals and hospices, mental health units, dialysis centres, adult incarceration centres, disability hubs and methadone clinics.
The ACT government remains committed to increasing vaccination coverage across the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. As of 30 November, commonwealth data indicates that 89 per cent of eligible Canberrans who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander had received their first vaccination dose and 84.9 per cent were fully vaccinated. It is important to note that vaccination coverage for this cohort is calculated using population figures sourced from the Australian immunisation register in alignment with a decision of the commonwealth Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Group.
Using the same methodology, the ACT’s non-Indigenous vaccination rate is estimated to be 86.8 per cent having received their first dose vaccination and 85.2 per cent with two doses. This is because AIR population figures inflate the ACT population by up to 20 per cent, based on health services usage in the ACT as recorded by ACT Medicare addresses. In fact, it means that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vaccination rates appear to be comparable with non-Indigenous rates. ACT Health continues to partner with Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services in the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination program, funding three nurses to support vaccination administration.
Madam Speaker, the COVID-19 outbreak in the ACT continues to remain stable at this time. Cases have recently been associated with schools, residential aged-care facilities, disability support services and construction. As at 8 pm on 30 November, there have been a total of 2,010 cases linked to the current ACT outbreak. There are 135 active cases, with eight COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital, three of whom are in intensive care and two requiring ventilation. As of that time, there are now 1,864 cases associated with this outbreak who have recovered and, of course, sadly, there have been 14 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
The ACT’s total case number over the whole pandemic is 2,134. As at 9 am on 30 November, there were 1,118 people in quarantine in the ACT being supported by ACT Health, with 876 of these individuals identified as close contacts of locally acquired cases and 231 who are overseas travellers. Testing numbers have increased over the past month, with testing numbers fluctuating between 1,000 to more than 3,000 tests per day in recent weeks. As at 9 am on 1 December, the ACT has recorded a total of 638,055 negative tests.
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