South Australia’s mass vaccination hubs to close

Two of South Australia's mass COVID 19 vaccine clinics are closing their doors because demand falls for shots.

The state's largest vaccine hub, Wayville Showgrounds, will shut down on July 14 while the clinic at Playford Civic Centre will close today.

The closure of mass vaccination sites will free-up nursing staff to work at state's hospitals facing critical shortages during the winter months.

The deadline for the Wayville hub was changed from May to July 14 but the state government changed the closing date from May to July 14.

A new vaccination site for the northern suburbs will open on July 7 at Elizabeth GP Plus Health Care Centre. Smaller, mobile clinics will be available across metropolitan Adelaide and regional areas.

Health Minister Chris Picton said GPs and pharmacies have played a major role in administering COVID 19 vaccines and will continue to play.

Playford will be the first mass clinic to close today, and the site has administered a peak average of 1,142 doses per day, so these numbers tell us that it is now time to bring back these services to meet current demand, he said.

With a focus on GPs and pharmacists administering the COVID vaccine going forward, moving to smaller-scale or mobile clinics will free up nursing staff to provide much-needed frontline services at busy hospitals. Over the past week, 600 vaccines per day were given across SA Health vaccination clinics, while GPs, pharmacies and other commercial providers administered around 2300 doses on average per day.

Nearly 94 per cent of South Australians have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 68.5 per cent of those aged over 16 years old having received a booster.

Professor Nicola Spurrier, Chief Public Health Officer, said the mass vaccination hubs supported the strategy of vaccinating as many South Australians in a short period, especially when borders were reopened and restrictions eased.

She said that it was important to keep the clinics open in early 2022 when Omicron arrived, giving everyone access to a third dose as quickly as possible.

There are new smaller clinics in Mount Gambier and Berri.

Changes in the dates and times may occur at other clinics. South Australians are asked to visit the SA Health website for the most up-to-date information and dates when mobile clinics will visit regional areas.