From next Wednesday, shoppers will be able to add a vaccine to their shopping cart after the state government revealed it would team up with the iconic hardware chain to make vaccination more convenient for families.The pop-ups will focus on a range of outer metropolitan and regional locations, targeting areas with lagging vaccination rates.The first three will open at Bunnings stores in Wodonga, Keysborough and Melton East from March 16.They will operate between 8am and 1pm, and will remain open for a week.Seventeen more Bunnings pop-ups will follow, with work still being done to determine which stores are selected.Health Minister Martin Foley said the vaccine was the “most important tool in the Covid-safe toolkit”.“Get your tools, get your vaccine, get your snag,” Mr Foley said. “We’re proud to work with this iconic Australian business to get more jabs in arms.”Approximately 53 per cent of residents aged 16 and over in the City of Melton, 52.3 per cent of residents in the City of Greater Dandenong and 65.6 per cent of residents in the City of Wodonga have had three doses of the vaccine.However, Bunnings will not be the only retail venue playing host to vaccination pop-ups over the next week, with pop-ups slated for the Queen Victoria Market, Highpoint Shopping Centre and The Mall (West Heidelberg).Visitors to the Cohuna Show, the Elmore Tractor Pull and the Swan Hill Food and Wine Festival in regional Victoria will also be able to roll up their sleeves for a jab.“These pop-ups will … focus particularly on areas with fewer GPs and less pharmacy access,” Mr Foley said. The rollout of the pop-ups at Bunnings stores will build on Victoria’s success at the former Bunnings in Melton, which delivered more than 150,000 jabs into arms.Deputy Secretary for Victoria’s Covid response Naomi Bromley said the state was continuing to make receiving a vaccine “easy, accessible and convenient”. “Especially in those parts of the state where the uptake might be a little bit lower or people might be experiencing some barriers to the vaccine,” Ms Bromley said. Fourth jab on the cards for winterEmergency plans are being drawn up to ensure all Australians aged over 16 can get another Covid booster shot if further protection is required before winter.The potential scenario is one of several included in a report on the nation’s preparedness for winter waves of Covid and influenza to be considered by the national cabinet on Friday. Scott Morrison will use the meeting to unveil plans to pump at least an extra $2.1bn into the nation’s Covid response, extending the agreement with the states for another three months to the end of September.The package includes $1.2bn for aged and disability care and $571m for vaccines, plus ongoing support for the national coronavirus helpline, GP respiratory clinics and the provision of personal protective equipment. Australia’s expert immunisation panel will soon decide whether immunocompromised Aussies will need another booster before winter, with work already underway to organise an aged care program for fourth jabs if required. Providing extra doses to those groups is one of several scenarios to be presented on Friday, as well as administering another round of boosters to all adults and a worst-case option in which a new strain requires two doses of a new vaccine. Doherty Institute epidemiology director Professor Jodie McVernon this week warned waning vaccine immunity and new variants would “drive future waves”.“There is no other side … We can’t just push through and get to where we used to be,” she said.Three out of five Victorians have had a third shot so far, with booster rates lagging in outer suburban areas hit hardest by coronavirus infections. As concerns grow about “flu-rona”, authorities already have given the green light for Australians to receive flu and Covid shots at the same time. The national flu vaccine program will launch next month, backed by advertising targeting high-risk groups. While workforce absenteeism is expected to surge in the event of another Omicron wave and rising flu cases, the national cabinet is not expected to scrap isolation rules for asymptomatic household contacts on Friday, with some chief health officers still undecided.The federal government is keen to ease that requirement but it is understood the medical expert panel is yet to reach a consensus. Victorian chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton told the Herald Sun last month the situation was too uncertain to scale back isolation rules, warning once those requirements were abandoned, it would be too difficult to reintroduce them even if the virus spiralled out of control again.
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