Pharmacies across the country are now offering appointments to get the COVID-19 vaccine, with 15 pharmacies across the Northern Territory participating.
The AstraZeneca vaccine will be offered at pharmacies spread across Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Darwin, Palmerston, and the rural area.
The director of the NT branch of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Judith Oliver, said pharmacies in other parts of the jurisdiction, including Katherine and Nhulunbuy, had decided not to join the rollout.
"Given the demand for the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is the only vaccine that pharmacies can provide at the moment, [they've decided] it's not worth them investing in that for the time being," Ms Oliver said.
Ms Oliver said pharmacies across the NT were able to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to anyone over the age of 30 who could not access the Pfizer vaccine through other means.
Pharmacies engaged 'a bit late' in the rollout
Alice Springs Pharmacy manager Anandh Vijayan said his pharmacy had been ready to deliver the vaccine for quite some time.
Pharmacies were able to register their interest to join the vaccine rollout from March this year.
"It's a new vaccine and the government's a bit hesitant on engaging us with the rollout … I can see why but it's just a bit of a slow rollout at the moment," he said.
"If we were engaged a bit earlier, I think we'd have much better results."
Mr Vijayan said the number of people enquiring about receiving the vaccine at his pharmacy had dropped since earlier in the pandemic.
Alice Springs Pharmacy was accepting bookings over the phone, and Mr Vijayan said there would be an online booking system available through the Commonwealth government website "very soon".
'Gauging interest' before ordering up big
Mr Vijayan said his pharmacy would initially accept bookings only on certain days to assess the demand for the vaccine from the community.
"We don't want to waste the vaccine," he said.
"We're trying to gauge the actual interest and we'll adjust according to the response."
Tennant Creek United Chemist pharmacy manager Arwin Digo said he was ordering the minimum amount of AstraZeneca vaccines, because they were not the preferred option within the town.
"[The community] is looking for the Pfizer vaccines," he said.
Pharmacies to eventually deliver Moderna vaccine
Northern Territory Health Minister Natasha Fyles said the Moderna vaccine would be delivered to pharmacies across the country, including in the NT, when it had received the appropriate approvals.
"[The Moderna vaccine] should hopefully get approval from the TGA [Therapeutic Goods Administration] and ATAGI [Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation] in the coming weeks and months," Ms Fyles said.
"It will be great to see more opportunities for Territorians to have those vaccines delivered."
