PREMIER TAKES VACCINES TO THE PEOPLE

PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk will ramp up her vax campaign in Townsville today in a bid to get North Queenslanders prepared for opening borders on December 17. She will announce seven new popup vaccination clinics for Townsville to try to lift the percentage of people vaccinated in the city.

At the moment, Townsville won’t hit the 80 per cent mark until early next year.

That could put the region’s economy in danger of being locked down if an outbreak hit the north.

Ms Palaszczuk has been pretty strong on the possibility of lockdowns for regions that don’t have enough people vaccinated.

Surprisingly, her representative, Minister for Regional Development Glenn Butcher, backed away from the move in his press conference in Townsville on Tuesday.

Mr Butcher was here spruiking vaccination but when pushed on the lockdown possibility, he said he was confident Townsville would reach the target in time.

He’s more confident than many in the community but maybe he already knew of today’s announcement.

That said, it’s a good initiative

P o p - u p vaccination centres are a great idea.

If the people are going to get vaccinated, take vaccinators to the people.

Saying that, some of the venues for the pop-up vaccination centres were surprising. One might have thought pop-up vaccinations centres at each of Townsville’s major shopping centres might have been a better option.

With temperatures starting to ratchet up into the 30s, airconditioned shopping centres are where everyone, especially young ones, congregate.

That said, it’s a good initiative and one the unvaccinated need to get behind. As the Premier says: “We cannot protect you if you won’t protect yourself.”