WA pharmacies will continue their push to give out more routine vaccines, after they hit a milestone this week of more than 900,000 COVID-19 vaccination doses.
Pharmacy Guild of Australia WA branch director Matthew Tweedie said community pharmacies had played a significant role in moving WA from having the lowest level of COVID vaccination to its current status.
It now had vaccination rates above the national average for primary and booster vaccines.
“Western Australia could not have achieved this result without the administration of COVID-19 vaccines through more than 450 authorised, accessible and convenient community pharmacies,” Mr Tweedie said.
Community pharmacies were first approved to administer the flu vaccine to adults in WA in 2014.
Mr Tweedie said that since then, the Community Pharmacy Immunisation Program had been expanded to include a broader range of vaccines, age groups, and locations.
The WA Branch was seeking to have the program further widened, particularly to include vaccine preventable diseases that were likely to increase with the restart of interstate and international travel and greater movement of people across the State’s borders.
“Approval pending, as we move deeper into autumn, we are rapidly approaching flu season and community pharmacy is again poised to commence yet another significant contribution to the State’s seasonal influenza vaccine program,” he said.
Last year, more 180,000 Western Australians were vaccinated against the flu in a community pharmacy.
Mr Tweedie said that while the State had experienced relatively low levels of flu across the past couple of years, with the border reopening that could change in 2022.