Premier Dominic Perrottet,Health Minister Brad Hazzard and NSW Health Deputy Secretary Susan Pearce at the opening of the Granville Centre vaccination clinic in western Sydney on Sunday.

Premier Dominic Perrottet,Health Minister Brad Hazzard and NSW Health Deputy Secretary Susan Pearce at the opening of the Granville Centre vaccination clinic in western Sydney on Sunday.Credit:Edwina Pickles

“There’s no issue from a distribution or supply[perspective] ... but we think we can do more there,” she said.

Teenagers in NSW currently receive some vaccinations,including the HPV and meningococcal vaccines,through school programs.

While south-western and western Sydney had some of the city’s lowest adult vaccination rates at the start of the Delta wave,targeted Pfizer vaccination programs in August and September saw many surpass those in the east and north.

Cumberland City Council Mayor Steve Christou said the flow-on effects of the area’s more stringent lockdown – including curfews and restricted work arrangements – meant booking a vaccine appointment for the kids was likely something some parents had not reached on their to-do list.

While its 12 to 15-year-old rate is low,94.5 per cent of people aged 16 and over in Cumberland have received a first dose.

“People are only just starting to get back to work and pick up their lives,” Cr Christou said,noting the council wanted to bring the rate up.

Associate Professor Margie Danchin,a consultant paediatrician and expert on vaccine uptake at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute,said school-based vaccination programs had the advantage of students being able to go through the experience together as well as removing access issues such as parents needing to take time off work to accompany their children.

“School-based vaccination delivery is brilliant,but the issue is collecting consent forms and making sure the community is informed,” she said.

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She said the lower uptake was likely a “combination of practical barriers and concerns” from parents,advocating for the use of town hall meetings in school communities to explain why vaccination against the virus was so important.

Children aged 12 to 15 have been eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19 since mid-September,but rates across Australia are much lower than in the adult population.

The ACT is the outlier,with 98.9 per cent first-dose coverage. Despite NSW having a higher adult rate,more than 82.6 per cent of Victorian children in the age group are vaccinated. All other states have first-dose rates below 64 per cent (Western Australia is lowest at 46.6 per cent).

Asked if more advertising was needed to encourage teenagers to come forward for vaccination,federal Deputy Chief Health Officer Sonya Bennett said family and friends were “the most important communicators” to children in this age group,although a targeted social media campaign with information about vaccination was also under way.

NSW reported 244 new local coronavirus cases on Sunday,including 77 in the Hunter New England Local Health District where anoutbreak largely affecting the Indigenous community in Moree and Inverell linked to a funeral last month has continued to spread.

There was one additional death from the virus reported in the state:an unvaccinated man in his 60s from Albury who died at Box Hill Hospital in Victoria.

with Rachel Clun and Nigel Gladstone

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