Pharmacies see Moderna vax bump

COMMUNITY pharmacies are seeing an increase in demand for COVID‐19 vaccina ons following the introduc on of the Moderna vaccine.

Since the start of the Moderna rollout less than 10 days ago, more than 53,000 doses have been administered through 1,825 pharmacies across the country, in addi on to the 669,000 AstraZeneca jabs given by pharmacists at 3,233 sites na onally.

In the eight days from 20 Sep, Moderna vaccines accounted for 37% of all COVID‐19 jabs given through the pharmacy network, and just over 7% of COVID shots administered by community pharmacists since the sector joined the na onal campaign in Jul.

Following the start of the Moderna rollout, pharmacies in the ACT have led the way, with the 35 ac vated stores administering an average of just under 51 doses per store (1,784 shots in total), as of 28 Sep.

Victorian pharmacies have recorded the highest number of doses administered, 19,500 ‐ or an average of 44 shots per pharmacy - with NSW-based stores giving 16,900 doses (averaging close to 30 doses each).

Commonwealth Department of Health officials have reported that more than 2.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed to community pharmacies to date, with more than 1.6 million yet to be administered.

In excess of 1.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have yet to be administered, while 389,900 shots of the Moderna vaccina on are in pharmacy fridges.

Department officials have confirmed that pharmacies can con nue to move stock between stores, no ng that such transfers “must be captured within the Vaccine Stock Management Report system by both the transferring and receiving site”.