NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Religious and Multicultural Leaders Push for Vaccinations

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian came together with more than 30 religious and community leaders yesterday to advocate COVID-19 vaccination amongst all eligible individuals across diverse faith and cultural communities.

The push comes as NSW is placed on alert with Melbourne on the brink of a seven day lockdown, with 12 new COVD-19 cases confirmed this morning.

The leaders met with the Premier as well as the Minister for Health, Brad Hazzard and Minister for Multiculturalism, Geoff Lee at Sydney Olympic Park.

“Thank you to community leaders across NSW who have shown leadership throughout the pandemic and continue to provide trusted information to their communities. It is critical to vaccinate our citizens as quickly and as safely as possible,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“There are Cultural Support Workers at the mass vaccination centre who can guide people through the entire process in 25 different languages.”

The majority of the community leaders have already received the AstraZeneca vaccine.

On Monday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian called for an increase to the vaccination target.

The premier said her target of 30,000 weekly jabs was exceeded last week at the Sydney Olympic Park vaccination hub, and she wanted that target to be increased by NSW Health.

The mass vaccination centre is now administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to members of the general public aged 50 and over, along with GPs and other NSW Health clinics throughout the state.

Almost 1.1 million vaccinations have been administered in NSW to date, which includes the parts of the rollout overseen by the Commonwealth.