Covid-19 Victoria: Huge queues as 16-39 year olds rush to get Pfizer vaccine


Young Victorians destroyed the state’s online vaccine reservation system, with more than 100,000 appointments made in just 10 hours.

More than 100,000 young Victorians reserved their vaccine on Wednesday as people aged 16 to 39 rushed to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.

The age group became available for the Pfizer vaccine at 7 a.m., prompting a wave of people to swarm the online booking website and visit various state-run vaccination centers.

The Department of Health confirmed Wednesday evening that from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., more than 100,000 had booked to receive the jab.

Photos taken outside the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Center vaccination center on Wednesday morning showed hundreds of people lined up waiting for their Covid vaccine.

Long queues were also reported at the Royal Exhibition Building center in Carlton and St Kilda.

Victoria Covid-19 deputy commander Naomi Bromley said the vaccine booking website was receiving 50,000 hits per minute.

She said more than 1.3 million calls were also made in an attempt to book a jab on Wednesday morning.

Ms Bromley said 25,000 reservations had been made as of 9 a.m. Wednesday – 18,000 through the online portal and 7,000 through the call center.

“Tens of thousands of Victorians are trying to book right now,” she said.

“So it’s slow. It is occupied. Please be patient. Please be kind to our staff.

“But people are successful and are making these reservations, which is really fantastic. Many appointments are still available.

“We have had an extraordinary response to eligibility changes.

“This change makes the message very clear – every Victorian 16 and over is now eligible to be vaccinated.”

Ms Bromley said that from Thursday the Victorians were to reserve the specific vaccine they wanted to receive.

She said those who booked Wednesday or earlier would be offered both Pfizer and AstraZeneca when they show up for their appointment.

Health Minister Martin Foley said there had been an “absolutely extraordinary level of influx of bookings” at state-run clinics on Wednesday morning.

“We have seen the system come under substantial pressure but, at the same time, we have also seen a huge number of bookings being made,” he said.

“What is fantastic is to see so many people who have become eligible under the announcements made by the Prime Minister yesterday wanting to be part of the recovery of our way out of this pandemic through the vaccination program.”

The rush on young Victorians eager to book a Pfizer jab also prompted the state government website crashed twice – one minute after the announcement and again on Wednesday morning.

Along with the new Pfizer vaccine eligibility, Victorian Prime Minister Daniel Andrews also announced that 830,000 additional appointments for the first dose of vaccination would be available.

He said 450,000 of them would be Pfizer reservations.

Victorians aged 16 and 17 will not be able to get the Pfizer vaccine as they are not eligible for AstraZeneca according to advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization. People aged 60 and over will continue to receive AstraZeneca.

When people arrive for their immunization appointment at one of the state centers, they will be offered both vaccines and will be able to choose their vaccine.

Those who have already made an appointment will also be offered both and will not need to change or cancel their appointment.

Mr Andrews again urged people not to cancel their existing appointments in order to reserve a Pfizer jab after more than 15,000 AstraZeneca reservations were canceled on Monday.

The government has a target of more than one million gun doses over the next five weeks and Mr Andrews said more than 230,000 doses have already been administered.

“But please, if you have not yet received your vaccine, book it today to protect yourself and your loved ones,” the Prime Minister said.

Asked about the website crash on Tuesday, Mr Andrews said it spoke to the number of Victorians who wanted to protect themselves from the virus.

“I don’t know if you can make a website big enough for the more than 1.2 million people who want to get vaccinated,” the prime minister said.

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