The arena’s general manager Steve Hevern said his team “jumped at the chance” to assist with helping the state towards its vaccination targets, allowing for arena shows to resume.
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“There is no doubt that the largest vaccination centre in NSW has greatly assisted in paving the way for the return of a semblance of normalcy to the everyday lives of Australians,” he said.
NSW Health’s original Sydney Olympic Park mass vaccination clinic, which opened in a converted office building in May, will continue to operate, as will its Macquarie Fields mass clinic.
A number of community clinics in western Sydney, including at Bankstown PCYC, Carnes Hill, Catherine Park, Fairfield, Prairiewood and Wattle Grove will shut by the end of the month.
On Wednesday, the majority of NSW’s 304 new local coronavirus cases were reported outside of Sydney. However, Deputy Chief Health Officer Marianne Gale singled out Dulwich Hill in the inner west as a location where health authorities had their eyes on rising cases.
Most other areas of concern were in the Hunter New England Local Health District, where 89 cases were recorded.
Data released by the federal government on Wednesday afternoon showed 86 per cent of NSW residents aged 16 and over are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 93.3 per cent have received at least their first dose.
Of the 12.1 million COVID-19 vaccines administered in NSW, about 4 million have been administered by NSW Health and the remaining 8.1 million were administered by GPs, pharmacists and other providers.
The number of people initially seeking a booster at the state’s clinics will be small. By May 8, six months before federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the boosters would likely be available to the general population, only 76,000 people had received their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at a NSW Health Clinic.
This figure does not include people who were fully vaccinated through other providers.
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Demand for boosters will likely reach a peak early next year, six months after the rapid increase in the state’s vaccination rate seen in September.
NSW reported three deaths in Sydney residents from COVID-19, including a man in his 30s from Sydney’s inner west who had only recently received his first dose of vaccine.
The other two deaths were people aged in their 70s and 80s who were unvaccinated.
COVID-19 hospitalisations have continued to fall in NSW. There are now 418 people admitted to hospital with the virus statewide, 97 of whom are in intensive care.
A ninth at-home rapid antigen test was approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration on Wednesday, with the regulator’s boss Professor John Skerritt noting other tests were “in advanced stages of review”.
At least 200 major chemists in NSW will stock the Roche SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Self-Test Nasal kit, a 15-minute rapid test, from next Monday.
States and territories are considering ways to manage the rollout of rapid home testing, Professor Skerritt said, adding the NSW Department of Education had flagged it will “mainly target them for outbreak control rather than testing every school child”.
“Now the tests are here some states are indicating they will procure the tests and … they will make decisions on how they roll them out,” he said.
Alert for inner-city gym as Qudos vaccination hub to shut
Source: Philippines Alive
