Clinical Nurse Mary-Jane Parker vaccinating a meatworker at Kilcoy Global Foods recently.
Caboolture Hospital’s vaccination team has proactively provided about 2000 COVID-19 vaccinations to meatworkers at Kilcoy Global Foods.
Assistant Nursing Director Emergency Operation Centre Connie Gray worked closely with Kilcoy Global Foods management to set up several opportunities for staff at the large facility in Winya to be vaccinated with Pfizer.
Meat processing workers are considered high risk workers and a priority population for vaccination in the Australian Government Vaccine Roadmap.
The virus can have a longer lifespan in abattoirs due to the cold conditions and workers being close together. COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred in abattoirs and similar facilities in both Australia and overseas.
Abattoir workers in Australia are already required to be vaccinated against Q Fever – a highly infectious and potentially debilitating disease spread from animals to humans.
Kilcoy Global Foods Director Matt Robinson said his vaccination against COVID-19 was an important step towards ensuring the safety of his employees and the community.
“Our team is vaccinated to protect themselves, their family and their co-workers,” Matt said.
Staff who missed the on-site vaccination clinics have been encouraged to walk-in at the Caboolture Square Shopping Centre community vaccination hub or any other location at any time.
Assistant Nursing Director Connie Gray said it was important that we continued to target people in priority groups such as meatworkers in particular to help stop COVID-19 spreading in our community.
“Many of the staff have come from other countries across the world so good communication, which included understanding their medical history, was a key consideration,” Connie said.
“We have proactively set-up vaccination clinics for other key priority groups, including emergency services staff at the Bribie Island Volunteer Marine Rescue, Morayfield High School and Bunnings Morayfield recently and we are actively investigating ways we can further support our community.
Metro North Health also worked in conjunction with several stakeholders, including the National Rugby League (NRL) to set-up clinics during the preliminary finals and grand final at Suncorp Stadium.
Visit the Metro North website for a list of COVID-19 vaccination locations.