Families will have more access to influenza vaccinations with the NSW Government lowering the age pharmacists can administer flu jabs to children from 16 years to 10 years.
\nHealth Minister Brad Hazzard said giving families more options to protect their children against flu is sensible, with the likely convergence of a COVID-19 pandemic with winter flu.
\n\u201cLast year was the longest flu season on record and in 2017 more than 650 people in NSW died from flu-related conditions, and now we have COVID-19,\u201d Mr Hazzard said.
\n\u201cWhile the flu vaccine won\u2019t combat COVID-19, it will help reduce the severity and spread of flu, which can lower a person\u2019s immunity and make them susceptible to other illnesses.
\n\u201cBy allowing pharmacists to administer privately purchased flu vaccines to people aged 10 years and over, families now have more choice when booking-in for a flu jab\u201d.
\nThe NSW Government has invested approximately $130 million in the 2019-20 Immunisation Program budget, including Commonwealth and state vaccines.
\nNSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said this year\u2019s flu vaccine is expected to be available from mid-April and she urges everyone who can be vaccinated to do so.
\n\u201cEach year in NSW, we have hundreds of flu-related deaths and many of those who die were infected by the people they know and love who weren\u2019t vaccinated,\u201d Dr Chant said.
\n\u201cNot only do you risk your own life by not getting vaccinated against flu but you can potentially spread the infection to others more vulnerable, like children and the elderly.
\n\u201cThis year\u2019s flu vaccine will be specifically tailored to the strains we expect will pose the greatest risk but as always, call ahead to ensure your GP or pharmacist has your dose.\u201d
\nLast year, around 2.5 million doses of Government-funded flu vaccines were distributed across NSW. This year, it is expected more than 2.6 million doses will be made available.
\nPeople aged 65 and over, pregnant women, Aboriginal people and those with high-risk medical conditions can be vaccinated for free by GPs under the National Immunisation Program. The free NSW-funded vaccine is available to all children aged six months to five years.
\nAmendments to the\u00a0Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Regulation 2008 to lower the\u00a0age that pharmacists can supply and administer a private market influenza vaccine to include people aged 10 years and over, are expected to come into effect by mid-March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Families will have more access to influenza vaccinations with the NSW Government lowering the age pharmacists can administer flu jabs to children from 16 years to 10 years. Health Minister Brad Hazzard said giving families more options to protect their children against flu is sensible, with the likely convergence of a COVID-19 pandemic with winter … Continue reading “NSW LOWERS AGE LIMIT FOR PHARMACY FLU JABS”<\/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":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5317","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=5317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}