Benalla is still the most vaccinated Local Government Area, per capita, in the Indi electorate, thanks to the hard work of local clinics and pharmacies.
On Wednesday, September 29, Federal Member for Indi Helen Haines visited Church St Surgery where she congratulated staff on their role in that achievement.
Practice manager Janine Rofe said Church St Surgery alone had administered more than 13,000 vaccinations since March.
Ms Rofe said while the Rose City had a low rate of vaccine hesitancy it was also accessibility to the vaccine that had helped it achieve so many jabs.
“Some of those will be people from the Mansfield area, but the majority of that 13,000 are Benalla people,” Ms Rofe said.
“A lot of them will be the second dose — I think Benalla is about 60 per cent double dosed now.”
Dr Haines congratulated Ms Rofe and the team at Church St Surgery.
“They have stepped up, over and above, here in Benalla,” Dr Haines said.
“Working Saturday after Saturday to make sure that the people of the Rose City have the opportunity to get vaccinated and stay safe.
“That is the greatest gift that you could give to a town.
“Having the highest rate of vaccination of any town, any LGA, in Indi is extraordinary.
“What Janine’s told me today is she has recruited extra people to come and help.
“Even her own daughter has been one of the team to make sure that Benalla has every opportunity to get vaccinated. And Saturdays clearly work.
“Vaccinating 500 people in a day is just an extraordinary outcome.
“She said they finish at 6pm, sometimes even 9pm.
“So they’ll stay and vaccinate as long as people will come.
“Janine also indicated that they’re vaccinating school students now and I was so pleased to hear that.
“I am concerned, however, that she said they could do much more, and faster, with our school students if they had more supply of Pfizer, so that is still a limiting factor.”
Ms Rofe said the clinic was sending a team of doctors and nurses to FCJ College on January 6.
“And with (Benalla P-12) College, we are hoping to be able to get there, too,” she said.
“However, if we can’t get more vaccines in to cover that, they may have to get (Jabba) the bus back.
“But we’ll be at FCJ next Wednesday offering vaccinations in their new multi-purpose hall.”
Dr Haines said the upshot of being an LGA with a high rate of vaccination was that Benalla might be able to open fully before other LGAs that have lower rates.
“When we’re thinking about vaccination we have to think about what that means,” she said.
“Well firstly it means that if you are unlucky enough to catch COVID-19 you’re not going to become really ill, which is super important.
“Number two is it means that once we’ve got high rates of vaccination we can welcome visitors back into our towns, our businesses can open and we can get our economy really kick-started again.
“That is very important.
“What we’re seeing from the Premier (of Victoria) at the moment, is he’s looking to local LGAs that have high rates of vaccination to trial various hospitality limits.
“I’d love to see Benalla be one of those places, and I think there’s every chance it could be with this rate of vaccination.”
Ms Rofe confirmed Church St Surgery was still running its Saturday vaccination clinics.
“If you want to book a jab you can do that by phoning 5762 1022 or on the online portal,” she said.
To book a vaccine online at Church St Surgery visit churchstreetsurgery.com.au