Inner West Council has today launched a large-scale public education campaign encouraging the entire Inner West community to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
In a local government first, the Inner West has installed banners across all suburbs promoting vaccination, written to every household and developed posters for shopfronts urging local residents to help meet a goal of universal vaccination.
Following Federal and State Government delays in opening walk-in vaccination clinics Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne has today also convened an extraordinary meeting Council to begin opening Council facilitated vaccination clinics for the community and frontline staff.
Byrne said helping vaccinate the community against COVID-19 must be the number one goal for Council at this time.
"Universal vaccination of the Inner West community must be achieved as soon as is humanly possible," said Mayor Byrne.
"We are determined to help protect our residents from COVID-19 by urgently promoting throughout our neighbourhoods and local networks how and where residents can get vaccinated.
"One of the key lessons from the pandemic so far is that vaccination promotion must be driven not just from the top down but also from the bottom up. Vaccination is everyone's responsibility, and we are mobilising our whole community to help get the message out.
"The failures of the vaccine rollout also mean that local governments have to step up and fill the void.
"The State and Federal Governments have not acted on our offer to use out town halls as vaccination hubs, so I have now called an extraordinary meeting to propose that Council partner directly with local pharmacists and doctors to get these walk-up clinics open immediately.
"We need our frontline staff to be vaccinated immediately and for the community to have access to walk-in vaccination clinics in their neighbourhoods and we can't wait any longer for the State and Federal Governments to get their act together.
"I call on local governments across Australia to look at what they can do at the grass roots level to assist their citizens to get vaccinated," Mayor Byrne said.
As part of this public information campaign, Council has hang banners on main streets and town halls, produced posters for shopfronts, written to residents and launched a social media campaign that will help local people to locate where they can get vaccinated urgently.
The messages promoted in the campaign have been tailored to the Inner West community with wording agreed with NSW Health.
