District offers COVID-19 vaccines to vulnerable communities.

Sydney Local Health District partnered with The Exodus Foundation this week to offer COVID-19 vaccinations to some of the most vulnerable people in our community – those who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

The District’s Flying Squad of COVID-19 nurses set up a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the church at the Foundation in Ashfield.

Vulnerable people in the community often face barriers accessing mainstream health services. And, many also have significant underlying health conditions which put them at greater risk from COVID-19.

“They’re a group of people who are highly unlikely to reach out quickly to get a COVID vaccination because of their own personal circumstances,” Paul Clenaghan, the District’s Community and Partnerships Manager for Mental Health Services, said.

More than 150 people were vaccinated.

“It’s an absolute privilege…to help vaccinate the population because… it helps to protect them in the community and it’s an extra step to getting to a new future,” Sarah Fletcher, from the District’s Flying Squad, said.

The Foundation’s Rev Crews expressed his thanks.

“Health are here today to make sure that those in my community, that is the vulnerable, the poorest of the poor, the needy, the homeless, get their first jab of the Pfizer vaccine and I am so pleased they are here,” he said.

The District also provided flu vaccinations at the organisation earlier this year, and screening and testing for COVID-19 last year.

The District also offered COVID-19 vaccinations at a special complex in Camperdown – Common Ground Sydney.

It’s a residential unit block, run by national charity Mission Australia, that provides accommodation for long term homeless people and people who are on low to moderate incomes in inner Sydney.