OUR TOWNS REACT TO JAB ROLLOUT

THIS week the Mercury took to the road to see what was happening in some of the state’s regional areas and to hear their thoughts on Tasmania’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout. The people we spoke to on the West Coast all seemed eager to get their vaccination. But it was a different story in Kentish — the state’s lowest-vaccinated local government area — where a number of barriers had been in place, as the Mercury reported on Friday. At Penguin, in one of the better-performing parts of regional Tasmania, we saw just how easy it was for Ulverstone speedway racer Darren Saunders to wander into a Penguin chemist to get his first Moderna jab, without even needing to book.

Premier Peter Gutwein last week said: “What we need to do is get to a point where I can confidently say to myself that every single Tasmanian that is eligible has had the opportunity to have the vaccine.”

What we found around the state this week is that in some parts at least, we’re not there yet.