Mass vaccination - an inside view

This somewhat reluctant vaccinee was one of several thousand to turn up today at NSW Health's mass COVID-19 vaccination centre at Olympic Park. We followed her progress through the system. And it was all rather smooth and impressive.

You make your online booking and turn up somewhere near the selected time. It's a short walk from either the train station or Car Park 3. You negotiate a small maze and a check-in stage.

Then there's perhaps 5 minutes before your number comes up.

 

 

 

A very pleasant nurse then runs through a whole lot of health questions, before running a needle into your arm. So maybe 5 minutes there.

And of course there's the obligatory 15 minute post-jab sit-down, so you can solve the Herald's Target puzzle.

All quite impressive really. Well done Gladys. If the federal government had been in charge of this place, they'd still be holding meetings about what colour direction signs they should put up, and which donor company should be given a few billion to run it.

For the record, you can get either AstraZeneca or Pfizer there, and the eligibility rules are rather more flexible than publicly stated, if you have a cooperative GP and knowledge of the 'special' booking site.

Covid countdown - "Test, test, test!"

What an adventure! In NSW we're now encouraged to turn up for a Covid-19 test if we have the slightest cough, runny nose, or sore throat. And that's thoroughly commendable. We're down to single figure confirmed cases per day, and if we test just about anyone who turns up, we might just get to eliminate the thing entirely.

I do have a bit of a dry cough that wakes me up at night now and again, plus a slightly runny nose  (for a couple of years now - probably hay fever), so I don't think I was pushing the boundaries too far. After all, the more data compiled about the overall prevalence of the disease, the better. It's no use waiting until someone's about to die before testing them, as they do in some countries.

The process at the Hornsby Hospital Covid-19 clinic was being run very efficiently today by two young nurses. Altogether it took about one hour. You arrive, fill out a form, sit around socially spaced outside, get let inside to sit around socially spaced a bit longer.

Then you're in the booth. Nurse Rachael or her colleague check your details and then shove tubes into your mouth and up both nostrils. It's rather weird! Then they tell you you'll get the results in a few days time, and you're not allowed to leave your house until you get the results!

Mmmmmm! Hadn't thought about that bit. I'll have to give the local parks explorations a bit of a rest.