Ararat Medical Centre's Doctor Michael Connellan is eager to see the increased uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations continue.
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Since the circuit breaker lockdown was announced on Thursday, May 27, there has been an increase in the daily number of people getting vaccinated.
On Sunday, May 23, the seven day rolling average for COVID-19 vaccines received in Victoria was about 8000. On Sunday, May 30, the seven-day average was above 17,000.
Dr Connellan said this was an encouraging development.
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"It's certainly been good to see the increase this last week and I think we're fully booked at the medical centre next week as well," he said.
"We're about to start giving people their second doses of AstraZeneca."
Dr Connellan said before the circuit breaker lockdown there had been a decline in people receiving the vaccine.
"There was an initial rapid uptake of the vaccine in Ararat. The first couple of weeks we were fully booked," he said.
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"But in the last month, those numbers dropped off. That was a combination of uncertainty because of the bad press that the vaccine was given, a little unfairly, and because there no active COVID cases in the country at that stage."
The last active COVID-19 case in Ararat was in August 2020.
However, Dr Connellan said people could not afford to be complacent.
"The virus will be in the community at some stage, we will not avoid it," he said.
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"At some point, there will be people in Ararat and probably every community around Australia who have had contact with COVID.
"If everybody is vaccinated, then if they have contact with the virus they will probably not die from the virus or need to go to hospital."
Dr Connellan encouraged people with concerns about the vaccine to visit their general practitioners.
"We've had a steady flow of people coming in to ask about it and clarify some of their concerns," he said.
"They're often concerned because of all the hype in the media about the risk of blood clots and things, so they just want to make sure they're safe to go ahead with the vaccination.
"Once we have had a chance to talk to people and answer their questions they are usually very happy to go ahead with the vaccine."
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