Mass COVID vaccination clinics around South Australia are set to close as the demand begins to decrease with almost 94% of South Australians now vaccinated and 73% having received a booster.
Adelaide’s largest COVID vaccination clinic at Wayville will close its doors by July 14th with the Playford hub closing today.
SA Health’s major vaccination clinics were all scheduled to close a few months ago, however the Malinauskas Government moved to extend the life of the clinics for a few more months to allow more people the opportunity to come forward and get vaccinated who had not done so already. Many mass vaccination clinics have already closed in other states.
In their replacement, SA Health will open a series of new, smaller vaccination clinics with vaccine nurses being relocated back to front-line operations in response to staff shortages in the state.
Health Minister Chris Picton said “Moving to smaller scale or mobile clinics, with a bigger focus on GPs and pharmacies administering the COVID vaccine going forward, will importantly free up nursing staff to provide much needed frontline services at our busy hospitals.
“While we no longer need such significant capacity, South Australians can be assured they will still have access through approximately 600 GPs and pharmacies across the state, but also through the remaining SA Health sites, and we have the capacity to upscale if there is a need in the future.”
Chief Public Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier said “Our mass clinics such as Playford and Wayville were established to cater for large volumes of people, an average of 1,000 every day, to support the strategy of having as many South Australians vaccinated in the shortest period.”
There are importantly 600 GPs and pharmacies across the state offering COVID-19 vaccinations ensuring there is more than enough capacity to meet the current and expected demand.
A new SA Health site in the northern suburbs will open on Thursday 7 July, located at the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network’s (NALHN) GP Plus site at Elizabeth, with new, smaller sites in Berri and Mount Gambier also to open.
Mobile clinics will continue to service areas across the metropolitan areas, particularly in the northern and southern suburbs, as well across all regional areas such as Mount Barker, Gawler, the South Coast, Mount Gambier, Quorn, Hawker, Leigh Creek, Roxby Down, Ceduna, with outreach to Streaky Bay and Wudinna.
SA Health COVID vaccination clinics will continue to operate at:
- Noarlunga (mass vaccination clinic)
- 77 King William Street St, North Adelaide
- Elizabeth GP Plus Health Care Centre
- Port Augusta
- Whyalla
- Waikerie
- Murray Bridge
- Mount Gambier
- Port Lincoln
- Port Pirie
- Wallaroo
In addition, there will still be mobile clinics servicing local areas of need with communities to be notified of upcoming dates of visits.
This will importantly free up nursing staff to provide acute care, particularly at South Australia’s busy public hospitals during the winter months.
At the end of today, the COVID-19 mass vaccination clinic in Playford will close after administering more than 275,210 vaccinations since it opened in May last year, and approximately 32,000 a month at its peak.
Demand for vaccinations at Playford clinic has declined dramatically over recent months, with just 23 vaccinations delivered on one day this month, which at its peak delivered 1,143 doses a day.
Over the past week only about 600 vaccines per day were administered across the SA Health vaccination clinics, in comparison to GPs, pharmacies and other commercial providers who had administered around 2,300 doses on average per day.
Wayville will be the last of the mass vaccination closures to occur on 14 July. Other clinics may experience changes in dates and times.
The most up-to-date information can be found on the SA Health website.
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