_:n8577acef4a7a4af3ad121361df3969e4xb0
<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"More than 240,000 COVID-19 vaccine appointments are currently available at GPs across WA, Australia&rsquo;s biggest healthcare booking system has revealed as authorities vent their frustration at &ldquo;complacent&rdquo; West Australians. Figures supplied by Healthengine, a booking app founded in WA, showed there were 243,956 vaccine appointments that can be booked between now and the end of the year, including 6128 appointments available over the next seven days. This includes GPs and medical centres that offer appointments directly through the app, but does not include the five State-run hubs in Perth or the Bunbury clinic. Despite widespread availability, on the Queen&rsquo;s Birthday public holiday Monday just 9000 doses were administered in WA. That&rsquo;s after only 11,000 jabs were put into the arms of West Australians on Sunday and 14,000 on Saturday. This was the lowest number in eight weeks even though 347,000 WA residents aged over 16 are still yet to receive their first dose and a total of one million more jabs are required for WA to reach the 80 per cent fully vaccinated milestone. Mark McGowan has set an immunisation target of between 80 and 90 per cent before setting a date to reopen WA&rsquo;s border to NSW and Victoria sometime next year, but WA Health boss David Russell-Weisz last week conceded 90 per cent might not be achievable. &ldquo;I think a 90 per cent rate may be a challenge, but I am an optimist and we should recognise it as a challenge and try to reach it, because the higher we can make it, the freer we will be. I think every effort can be made to reach 90 per cent,&rdquo; he told a Parliament estimates hearing. With 63.75 per cent of the WA population over 16 having received at least one dose, Royal College of GPs WA faculty chair Sean Stevens said the &ldquo;low hanging fruit had been picked&rdquo; and the challenge now was to convince the vaccine hesitant to roll up their sleeve. He called for advertising campaigns featuring social media influencers and sports stars to engage with more difficult to reach parts of the community, such as ethnic minority groups and younger West Australians. &ldquo;In the absence of an outbreak in WA, we are going to struggle to get 90 per cent vaccinated, but 80 per cent is achievable,&rdquo; Dr Stevens said. &ldquo;We are living in a bubble, but you are in la-la land if you think COVID is not coming to WA. If you wait for an outbreak then when it comes you are going to be at the back of a queue of hundreds of thousands of people.&rdquo; Vaccine commander Chris Dawson said complacency was a &ldquo;real issue&rdquo; and some West Australians simply didn&rsquo;t believe the virus would get into the State. A survey in late July/early August for the Healthengine and Australian Patients Association&rsquo;s Australian Healthcare Index report found six per cent of West Australians didn&apos;t want to be vaccinated and 19 per cent were undecided. Healthengine chief executive Dr Marcus Tan said COVID-19 jab appointments could be booked through the website or app and were searchable by vaccine type, including Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca. &ldquo;As we watch what&rsquo;s happening out east and we continue to live relatively COVID-free in WA, now is not the time to be complacent. This is the time to get ahead of it and get vaccinated,&quot; Dr Tan said."
<https://thewest.com.au/news/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccination-in-wa-authorities-frustrated-by-wa-complacency-ng-b882021310z>