Terry White Waroona is now offering the Moderna jab

A private pharmacy in Waroona that became the first in regional WA to roll out any COVID vaccine is now offering the Moderna jab. TerryWhite Chemmart Waroona began administering the vaccination yesterday for any person aged between 12 and 60. It came just three days after the Pfizer vaccine became available to any person over 60. The Pfizer vaccine is now widely available across the State, including at the Harvey Medical Group branches in Harvey and Waroona. Pharmacy owner Judy Mather said she had ordered 300 doses of the Moderna jab, which she expected would be snapped up quickly. Waroona has the ninth lowest COVID jab uptake in WA’s regions, with less than a quarter fully vaccinated as of last month. Ms Mather said concerns about the AstraZeneca vaccine could be a reason behind the low numbers and hoped the availability of Moderna would encourage the town’s residents to get the jab. Ms Mather said the pharmacy was already swamped by people looking for the vaccine. “People have been waiting since March,” she said. “We are struggling to keep up with the demand and having the trained staff to deliver it is the limiting factor to what we can do.” People over 60 began receiving the Pfizer jab in Waroona on Thursday after the Premier’s announcement early last week, but not at the TerryWhite pharmacy. Harvey Medical Group director Dr Jagdev Singh said he believed vaccination rates would rise now Pfizer was available to people over 60 and he was planning to hire two casual nurses to carry the extra workload. “There have been a lot of people waiting for Pfizer who refuse to take AstraZeneca who are very paranoid about getting clots and have the wrong perception (about the vaccine),” he said. “It is good it is coming, we are definitely going to have an increase in numbers, we already have a waitlist. “With the increased number of vaccines we will need to get more sessions done so we are going to increase our manpower.” Ms Mather said she did not understand why the pharmacy did not have access to all the vaccines when the GP did.