People line up to receive their COVID jab in Homebush.Credit:Janie Barrett
While only 33.5 per cent of people in the city’s inner south-west had received a first dose at the start of the month,figures released by the federal government a week later showed this had increased by 5.5 percentage points.
Meanwhile,some of the highest rates of full vaccination are seen in the north-west,north shore,eastern suburbs and Sutherland,where at least 40 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated.
In the regions,only about 10 to 19 per cent of residents in Walgett and Bourke and 20 to 29 per cent of Dubbo residents are fully vaccinated.
However,recent cases have seen a significant jump in the number of people living in these areas who have received their first dose:by Tuesday,50 to 59 per cent of people in the Walgett area had received a COVID-19 vaccine,up from only 30 to 30 per cent a week ago.
The new data has been released as NSW Health plans a major vaccination blitz with 530,000 extra Pfizer doses set to be delivered to people aged 16 to 39 living in Sydney’s hotspot areas in the next two and a half weeks.
Dr Susan Pearce,who has been running NSW’s vaccination effort,said the state will provide vaccines to people aged 16 to 39 in the Bayside,Burwood,Blacktown,Canterbury-Bankstown,Campbelltown,Cumberland,Fairfield,Georges River,Liverpool,Parramatta,Strathfield and parts of the Penrith area.
“We know there are several hundred thousand people in those age groups in those LGAs who are not yet vaccinated,” she said.
On Tuesday,Premier Gladys Berejiklian said 75 per cent cases in NSW were people under 40.
“That’s why those extra jabs we receive from the Commonwealth will be put straight into the arms of 16- to 39-year-olds in the local government areas of concern,” she said.
About 52 per cent of people in NSW have received a first dose of a vaccine and about one quarter of the population has been fully vaccinated.
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