BENDIGO aged care residents will be among thousands vaccinated in the first weeks of Australia's COVID-19 immunisation rollout.
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Aged care facilities in East Bendigo, Ironbark and Long Gully are among those selected for the first stages of priority immunisations.
Bendigo will also be home to a Pfizer vaccination hub, set to receive its first doses next week.
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About 240 nursing homes have been chosen for the first week of vaccination, due to begin on Monday, including those in the Bendigo area.
Health workers will be dispatched to vaccinate all aged care and disability residents over the next six weeks.
Sixteen Pfizer vaccine hubs in major cities, such as the Bendigo hub, will vaccinate all frontline health workers and quarantine workers during the initial vaccination phase.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said Australia's target was to have 60,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine administered in the first week of the program.
Mr Hunt said every state, territory, rural, regional and urban area would be covered by the program.
Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy said Australia had the advantage of having no community transmission of COVID-19, but there was room to change the rollout in case of an outbreak.
Professor Murphy said Australia was in a great position, with no impending serious risk.
"This is a really, really exciting time, but we are about to start the single- biggest, and most complex, vaccination task in the history of this nation," he said.
The Pfizer vaccine, which needs to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures will be desfrosted before being couriered to aged care facilities and reconstituted on site. It requires two doses, 21 days apart.
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The Federal government has told Victoria it can expect to receive about 11,000 doses of the vaccine per week, dependent on supply.
The majority of Australia's population will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is due to be ready for use in early March.
Vaccines will become available in a staged rollout, with phases 1a and 1b encompassing quarantine and border workers, frontline health care workers, aged care and disability staff and residents, adults aged over 70, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged over 55, people with an underlying medical condition and clinical and high risk workers
Other Australians will be vaccinated in phases 2a and 2b.
All vaccinations will be recorded in Medicare records online and in hard copy.
With AAP.
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