WITH local vaccination rates lagging behind the state average, the Nambucca Valley will be vulnerable to Covid-19 outbreaks when New South Wales begins to reopen as early as next month, two Nambucca Valley Councillors have warned.

The stay-at-home orders currently in place across most of New South Wales are set to end as new statewide rules come into effect on the Monday after 70 percent of the state’s eligible population has received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, which is projected to happen in late October.

Among others, the rules are expected to include mandates that adults will need to be fully vaccinated or have a medical exemption to be able to travel within New South Wales, participate in gatherings of up to five visitors at a home or up to 20 people in an outdoor setting, or enter non-essential retail stores and hospitality venues.

For the Nambucca Valley, this could mean a loss of some current freedoms for unvaccinated or partially vaccinated adults and an increased risk of exposure to the virus, as the community is not on track to reach the 70 percent double-dose goal before visitors could start arriving from Covid-affected areas such as Sydney.

As of September 12, a total of 78.8 percent of the New South Wales population aged 16 and over had received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 46.5 percent had received two doses, compared with 69.8 percent of Nambucca Valley residents aged 15 and over for single doses and 42.8 percent for double doses, according to figures from the Federal Government.

These rates are likely to be lower in the Nambucca Valley’s Indigneous community, based on September 7 figures from the Federal Government that showed just 45.09 percent of the Mid North Coast’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population aged 15 and over had received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 22.59 percent had received a second dose, compared with an overall state average at the time of 75.6 percent for single doses and 42.7 percent for double doses.

Nambucca Valley Councillors Susan Jenvey and Uncle Martin Ballangarry, who is also a Gumbaynggirr elder, said they were particularly concerned about their hometown of Bowraville, which has the lowest vaccination rates in the Nambucca Valley.

Fewer than 60 percent of people residing in the Bowraville postcode have received a single dose and fewer than 30 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the NSW Health figures at the time of going to print.

“That is a real concern.

“We know that there are many people in our local government area who are vulnerable because we have a lot of people over 60 with underlying conditions, but we also have those same vulnerabilities in the indigenous community, so that makes for uncertainty,” Jenvey said, adding that “time is closing in on everyone to act”.

“There will be people traveling up here to the regions because they’ve been double vaccinated, and our vaccination rates may not be at the level that they should be.”

Accessibility issues, mixed messaging, and hesitancy due to a lack of information are likely to have played a role in the lower rates of vaccination in Bowraville, Jenvey and Ballangarry said.

“I do my bit as a councillor and an elder in this area,” Ballangarry said.

“So I’ve been going out, meeting a lot of the people, talking about [the vaccines] and talking with the health workers in town too.”

Ballangarry is also leading by example – “I’ve already had my AstraZeneca, so they all call me Astra Boy now,” he said – and providing information to the community to help people make informed decisions.

“I’m not going to tell them what to do but I just can ask them politely, nicely, say, ‘well, it’s up to you whether you want to survive or not but you stand a better chance with the jab’,” he said.

As well as urging the community to get vaccinated, Jenvey is calling on the NSW Government to provide more clarity about the plans to reopen the state and have “a bit more care about country communities if they’re going to allow regional travel”.

“They’ve got to make sure that we’re not exposed unnecessarily to this disease,” she said.

“We can’t stop the reopening, it’s the government’s decision, so they really need to do the right thing by us and take note that our vaccine rates are lower than [the state average].”

Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW John Barilaro referred questions about what the state government will do to protect regional areas to a NSW Health spokesperson, who said further information will be provided as we get closer to 70 percent of our population being double vaccinated.

“The details of the roadmap are currently being worked through, but there will be requirements in place to ensure only those who have received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine can take advantage of the freedoms,” the spokesperson said.

“Local health districts across regional and rural NSW are working with their local communities to ensure people have access to NSW Health vaccination clinics or pop-up and mobile vaccination sites.”

AstraZeneca vaccinations are available at Bowraville Pharmacy and the closest clinics offering the Pfizer vaccine are in Macksville and Nambucca, according to the government’s Covid-19 Vaccine Eligibility Checker, however Nambucca Valley Respiratory Clinic, working in partnership with NSW Health, is running monthly clinics offering both vaccines at Bowraville Community Health.

“Nambucca Valley Respiratory Clinic identified the community of Bowraville as a particularly vulnerable group compounded by the lack of access to vaccination services early in the vaccination rollout,” Practice Manager Sheree Smith said.

The monthly clinics started in June and the next one is scheduled for Wednesday, September 22.

“So far we have delivered 330 vaccinations to patients unable to access services outside of the Bowraville township,” Smith said.

“Residents of Bowraville and surrounding rural areas are able to access the service on a walk-in basis now that our allocation to the Pfizer vaccine has been increased.”

Healthy North Coast Chief Executive Julie Sturgess said the Nambucca LGA will see a doubling of the amount of Pfizer available across general practices over the coming weeks.

“We’re also working closely with local Aboriginal health organisations to support their efforts to provide vaccination services,” she said.

“We encourage our Aboriginal communities to keep their family and loved ones safe by rolling up their sleeves for the Covid-19 jab.”

To find clinics across the Nambucca Valley and book an appointment, visit the government’s Covid-19 Vaccine Eligibility Checker.

 

By Brooke LEWIS