The COVID-19 vaccination program has landed in Stawell with residents of the Macpherson Smith Residential Care facility becoming the first to receive their first dose of the vaccine in the town.
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On Friday, a team of a GP from the Stawell Medical Centre and senior immunisation and nursing staff administered the first doses of the vaccine to residents including Phillip.
Phillip was told the vaccine would be arriving in Stawell a few weeks ago and said the he was relieved after a tiring day.
He also said the vaccine was virtually painless and felt "less than a mosquito bite".
21 residents at Macpherson Smith Residential Care facility received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine with their second doses scheduled for 12 weeks time.
Stawell Regional Health chief executive officer Kate Pryde said there had been much planning, training and preparation required to get the Stawell Regional Health Vaccination team ready for the roll-out of the program.
"It takes real team work in preparation and it starts with working collaboratively with the Commonwealth and State health departments and our Health hub partners from the Grampians Region," she said.
"It also includes every staff member who have undertaken additional and extensive training and worked long hours to put the program in place."
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Ms Pryde expressed her thanks to all involved to help get Stawell Regional Health ready to vaccinate their residents, staff and community.
Ms Pryde also confirmed the vaccine rollout will happen in phases in Stawell, after a government website mishap caused confusion on Wednesday.
Stawell Regional Health said they will be administering the vaccine to their residents identified as part of Phase 1A, then vaccinations will be given to to frontline staff, with the remaining staff as identified in Phase 1B.
They will also be commencing the roll-out to community members who are deemed eligible for Phase 1B.
Eventide Homes chief executive officer Sue Blakey said their care facility was waiting for their allocation of vaccines to be distributed.
"We will let everyone know as soon as we know," she said.
"We are not sure when they will arrive we have been told to expect six weeks notice for when they're arriving and we haven't heard anything at this stage.
"We just have to wait until we are allocated our amount and we will be advised by our PHU, so we are just waiting to here from them."
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