COVID-19 vaccine certificates to be available within days of immunisation
Australians will have access to their COVID-19 immunisation certificates within days of receiving the vaccine, with the scheduled rollout confirmed to begin at the end of the month.
Hotel quarantine workers are among the first in line to be vaccinated, but as the program is rolled out more widely, ready access to vaccination certificates will be important for access to at-risk facilities including hospitals and aged care homes or for crossing state borders. Later, vaccine certificates will be an important part of international travel.
People will be able to access their immunisation records within a matter of days after receiving a vaccination.Credit:AP
Online training for nurses, doctors, pharmacists and other healthcare workers was launched on Monday ahead of the coming vaccine rollout and Health Minister Greg Hunt reconfirmed vaccine delivery schedules with both Pfizer and AstraZeneca over the weekend and on Monday. The first Pfizer delivery is due in the last week of February and the international AstraZeneca shipments are due from early March.
Services Australia general manager Hank Jongen said the department had made “critical enhancements to the Australian Immunisation Register” in preparation for the COVID 19 vaccine rollout and most people would be able to access their proof of vaccination within days via MyGov or the Express Plus Medicare mobile app.
He said the improvements have included increasing capacity so more people can access the register at the same time, the ability to capture more detailed information about vaccines given, and updating immunisation history statements to show all COVID-19 vaccine doses.
“While the vast majority of vaccination information is processed overnight, vaccinations can take a few days to appear on your immunisation history statement depending on where you were vaccinated and if we have the most up to date contact details for you,” he said.
“We encourage all Australians to check and update their details with Medicare in preparation.”
Mr Jongen said people should also be assured the government takes the integrity of the Medicare and Australian Immunisation Register systems “extremely seriously”.
Government Services Minister Stuart Robert said vaccine certificates will be updated with each dose and will include the type of vaccine received.
“After your first dose, you’ll be able to look at your vaccination certificate online, or indeed, go and print it out or the vaccination provider can print it out for you, and you’ll see that it’ll have the first dose,” he said on ABC’s RN Breakfast on Monday morning.
Mr Hunt said the vaccine training was the “next step in our vaccine rollout”.
More than 1.5 million workers will complete the immunisation training developed by the Australia College of Nursing and Midwifery before they’re allowed to administer vaccines, he said.
“It is not difficult, but it is an important step and that includes content which is relevant to the vaccines that Australia will be using, in particular the use of what are called multi-dose vials,” the minister said on Monday afternoon.
The training also includes modules on handling and storage, safety and surveillance, Mr Hunt said, all elements that were “critical to ensuring that vaccination occurs in a safe and effective way”.
Start your day informed
Our Morning Edition newsletter is a curated guide to the most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up to The Sydney Morning Herald’s newsletter here, The Age’s here, Brisbane Times’ here, and WAtoday’s here.
Most Viewed in Politics
Source: Read Full Article