Health promotion

COVID-19 Update 8 April 2020. Flu vaccines. Kawerau CBAC

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This week we have continued with most consultations happening virtually via telephone or video to avoid patients being in close contact and at risk of spreading illness. 

We have run further influenza vaccination clinics and are still targeting those over 65 or under 65 with chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma requiring preventer treatment, renal failure as well as pregnant ladies or children with a history of respiratory conditions needing admission to hospital. We will be running another influenza vaccine clinic tomorrow Thursday 9 April from 2pm. This will be at the PathLab side of the building again.

Please queue outside the fence and don’t block the ramp. Remember to space at least 2m apart, bring a sunhat/sunscreen/umbrella and wear sleeves that can be easily lifted to expose the upper arm so that we can administer the immunisation without delay.

We had hoped to begin offering influenza vaccines to anyone who wanted them from next week but this has been pushed out to 27 April as per the Director General of Health’s briefing on Monday.

Another development is the Kawerau Pop Up Drive Thru COVID-19 Community Based Assessment Centre (CBAC) which launches tomorrow, Thursday 9 April at the the Ron Hardie Recreation Centre Car Park (111 Onslow St, Kawerau). This is a drive-thru facility, the purpose is to assess, test and manage people with potential COVID-19 symptoms. This is to allow Kawerau residents access to local COVID-19 assessment and testing.

All patients with the following symptoms are eligible to be seen at the drive-thru facility:

  • Cough
  • Shortness of Breath
  • Sore Throat
  • Runny Nose

All symptoms can be with or without fever. If you have your NHI number, please bring this with you.

Kawerau Assessment Centre will operate three times per week:

Tuesday 10am – 2pm

Thursday 10am – 2pm

Saturday 10am – 2pm

All patients are required to arrive at the drive-thru assessment centre in a vehicle, only with people within your bubble.

Influenza Vaccine Clinic Wednesday 8 April 2:30pm

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We will again be running an influenza vaccination clinic on Wednesday 8 April at 2:30pm. This will again be at the PathLab side of the Medical Centre and will run until we run out of vaccines or patients. Funded vaccines are available for anyone over 65 or people under 65 with chronic medical conditions.

Please queue outside the fence and don’t block the ramp. Remember to space at least 2m apart, bring a sunhat/sunscreen/umbrella and wear sleeves that can be easily lifted to expose the upper arm so that we can administer the immunisation without delay.

Influenza Vaccine Clinic Tuesday 7 April 2:30pm

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A backorder of vaccines was delivered today so we will again be running an influenza vaccination clinic on Tuesday 7 April at 2:30pm. This will again be at the PathLab side of the Medical Centre and will again run until we run out of vaccines or patients. At this stage we are still only able to offer vaccination to those eligible for funded vaccines (Over 65 or under 65 with certain chronic conditions).

Please queue outside the fence and don’t block the ramp. Remember to space at least 2m apart, bring a sunhat/sunscreen/umbrella and wear sleeves that can be easily lifted to expose the upper arm so that we can administer the immunisation without delay.

Influenza Vaccination Clinic Update

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Today we completed another successful Influenza vaccination clinic. We ran out of patients just before we ran out of vaccines so no-one that arrived missed out but we have no further vaccines left. We have had a batch on backorder since last week and will publicise a clinic via the website and Facebook as soon as they are available. The suppliers have indicated this may not be for a week or two.

Over the past week we have administered approximately 500 vaccines which is some kind of record. This has been the result of an outstanding effort by all our staff. Receptionists recording names and nurses and doctors calling patients back. Jackie and Sarah Morris have been in the front line administering vaccines at the vaccine clinics while all nurses have been involved vaccinating opportunistically. Huge credit also goes to our amazing patients who have responded at short notice to website and Facebook notifications, queued safely and in good humour and been generous in their appreciation of the service.

Because there has been such a big push on vaccination we have been asked if the influenza vaccine can prevent COVID-19. The answer to that is no it cannot prevent COVID-19 but it can prevent influenza which causes a very similar but slightly less severe illness. The reason for the push on vaccines is that by preventing influenza as well as we can we will limit those severe cases of influenza that require hospital resources and so free up those resources for COVID-19 patients if needed.

A big advantage of the lockdown and social distancing is that we are interrupting the spread of the normal winter colds and ‘flu as well as COVID-19. If we do this right we still have the chance to nip COVID-19 in the bud and potentially have a record low incidence of influenza as well. Stay home, keep to your bubbles and keep your distance and we can do this.

Influenza Vaccine Clinic Tuesday 31 March 2:30pm

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We will again be running an influenza vaccination clinic on Tuesday 31 March at 2:30pm. This will again be at the PathLab side of the Medical Centre and will again run until we run out of vaccines or patients. We have a moderate supply of vaccines but have been warned that our next batch may not arrive for a week or two. At this stage we are still only able to offer vaccination to those eligible for funded vaccines.

Please remember to space at least 2m apart, bring a sunhat/sunscreen/umbrella and wear sleeves that can be easily lifted to expose the upper arm so that we can administer the immunisation without delay.