People in the northern suburbs will have greater access to the lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine with South Australia's first drive-through vaccination clinic opening today at the SA Produce Market at Pooraka.
Minister for Health and Wellbeing Stephen Wade said transforming the existing Pooraka 'pop-up' vaccination clinic into a new drive-through option is an exciting milestone in the push to reach 90 percent of eligible South Australians vaccinated.
"It's been around for almost a century and now the humble drive-through is serving up jabs. You can book or you can just drive right on in. Roll down your window and roll up your sleeve. It's now that easy to get vaccinated," Minister Wade said.
"The drive-through has served us well during the pandemic, whether it be to facilitate contactless transactions with your grocery store, or as a safe testing clinic. Now you can get your life-saving vaccine without even leaving your car.
"We opened Australia's first (and the world's second) drive-through testing clinic at the Repat in March last year, which has been extremely successful and we hope this drive-through has similar success. Drive-through vaccine clinics in Victoria and New South Wales have been popular and we hope families with children over 12 will see this as a more convenient and accessible way for the whole family to receive their vaccine."
"South Australians should be extremely proud that we recently hit the 80 percent double dose mark of people aged 16 and over, but we know there are still some pockets across the state with a low uptake, particularly in the northern suburbs."
NALHN's Director of Nursing Operations and COVID-19 Program Lead, Andrew McGill, said while vaccinations in the north were slow early, it is encouraging to see a boost in this area.
"The Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN) has delivered more than 180,000 vaccinations to the community, with the Pooraka 'pop-up' administering more than 8,000 doses since it opened on 21 September," Mr McGill said.
"With borders reopening last week, now is not the time to take our foot off the brake. By opening the state's first drive-through clinic in the north, we are hoping to drive up the vaccination rate as we get closer to Christmas.
"Main North Road is a major traffic route that connects the northern part of metropolitan Adelaide and the CBD, which is just a few minutes drive from the Pooraka site. More than 80,000 vehicles travel through the Main North Road, Kings, and McIntyre Roads intersection on average per day, with Port Wakefield Road seeing close to 9,000 vehicles a day, so the SA Produce Market makes the ideal location for the State's first drive through vaccination clinic.
"Previously, the SA Produce Market Pooraka vaccination site was open until 3pm, but will now operate six days per week until 7pm to give everyone as many opportunities as possible to get their vaccine.
"People are welcome to book in advance or just drop-in and we anticipate being able to facilitate up to 250 bookings and more than 100 'drive-ins' every day."
The drive-through clinic joins 50 vaccination clinics run by SA Health and the hundreds of GPs and pharmacies administering the shots through the Commonwealth rollout
