Rural and Indigenous health experts are meeting regularly to ensure rural communities continue to be central to the phased rollout of Australia\u2019s COVID-19 vaccine.
\nThe\u00a0Remote Vaccine Working Group<\/i>\u00a0will provide advice to the Federal Government and identify issues as the rollout continues towards Phase 1B and beyond.
\nFederal Regional Health Minister, Mark Coulton said the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines to every corner of the country was complex and that was why the Federal Government had a plan and was listening to expert advice from rural health stakeholders.
\n\u201cCOVID-19 case numbers in rural and remote areas have been low, but the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine into regional, rural and remote communities is a vital part of the Government\u2019s vaccine strategy to ensure everyone in Australia is protected,\u201d Minister Coulton said.
\n\u201cThe TGA has found the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines to be safe, they are free, and you\u2019ll be able to receive your vaccination near where you live.\u201d
\nThe vaccine demonstrates it will stop people becoming very sick \u2013 keeping them off ventilators and out of hospital.
\nMinister Coulton said the Working Group \u2013 made up of the Commonwealth Department of Health, the National Indigenous Australians Agency and state and territory agencies \u2013 draws on expertise from health representatives. Many of the health experts have also participated in Rural and Remote Health Roundtable chaired by the Minister since the start of the pandemic.
\n\u201cThe leadership and expertise of these professionals provide important voices to the Working Group to ensure the rollout is done in genuine partnership and enables all rural Australians to be vaccinated close to where they live.\u201d
\nMinister Coulton said the rural health workforce and representative bodies had been integral in managing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
\n\u201cWe commend the efforts of our doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists and allied health workers in rural and remote areas,\u201d Minister Coulton said.
\n\u201cWe genuinely appreciate the ongoing leadership of the rural health sector, and we are in this enviable position because of the care and advice this sector has provided us over the past year.\u201d
\nThe Australian Government is working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Health Services, general practices, state and territory governments, Primary Health Networks, GP-led respiratory clinics and community pharmacies to ensure that Australians living in regional, rural and remote locations have access to a COVID-19 vaccination if they so choose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rural and Indigenous health experts are meeting regularly to ensure rural communities continue to be central to the phased rollout of Australia\u2019s COVID-19 vaccine. The\u00a0Remote Vaccine Working Group\u00a0will provide advice to the Federal Government and identify issues as the rollout continues towards Phase 1B and beyond. Federal Regional Health Minister, Mark Coulton said the rollout … Continue reading “Rural health group providing expert advice on bush vaccine rollout”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}