Hello and welcome to today's Top 3. I'm very pleased to be joined by my wonderful Auslan interpreter today.
My shout out today is to everybody involved in delivering the COVID-19 vaccine through phase 1b. As you know, we started on Monday this week, to roll out the vaccine through general practices, through the Commonwealth funded general practice led respiratory clinics, through Aboriginal Health Services, as well as through facilities established by states and territories right around the country. So, a huge thanks to our nation's general practitioners, our wonderful practice nurses, the receptionists and practice managers running our clinics, our aboriginal health workers in clinics right across Australia, and a big thank you to the people who are delivering the vaccine out to us, right across the country. This week, we're rolling out the vaccine in over a thousand sites around Australia. Over the next three to four weeks this will increase to four and a half thousand sites right across this very big country, so huge thank you to everybody involved.
First question, why should I have the vaccine when I'm fit and healthy?
Well COVID-19 of course, can cause serious disease, in not only elderly people, or people who are unwell. We've seen COVID-19 cause very serious disease in young people as well. So it's really important that everybody gets protected from COVID-19 by receiving the vaccine, when it comes to be your turn, as we have the national roll out.
The other issue for young people is that there is the risk if you are infected with COVID-19, of developing a condition called Long Covid. And this is being seen in quite a number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 infection, but then have persistent symptoms of feeling quite unwell for many weeks, or months, after they've actually been unwell. So you don't want to get Long Covid, you don't want to be infected with COVID-19.
Of course, the other reason for being vaccinated, is to protect the people in your life, to make sure that you don't bring Covid home and infect older people, or people with chronic health problems in your own family. And of course, we're also wanting to protect everyone in the community. So when it becomes to be your turn please roll up to your clinic, roll up your sleeve and get your shot.
Second question, is it safe to receive the COVID-19 vaccines if I'm undergoing cancer treatment?
So that's a very important question. If you're undergoing cancer treatment it's a good idea to talk to your treating doctor about when you should receive the vaccine, and just to make sure that it's safe to receive the vaccine with whatever treatments you're under at the moment.
