Commonwealth Bank of Australia is accelerating its COVID-19 vaccination program through the availability of the Pfizer vaccine to thousands of its people, their family and other household members in the Greater Sydney metropolitan area.
The Pfizer vaccine will be made available to staff and their dependents as young as 12 years of age from today (Wednesday 15 September) as part of an expanded corporate vaccination project organised by Australia's largest bank.
The bank opened its online booking system for the Pfizer vaccine to staff at the end of last week. Within the first 24 hours, more than 1,700 vaccination appointments had been made.
This expanded vaccination program follows last month's opening of the country's first COVID-19 corporate vaccination hub by CBA - at Parramatta - which offered the Astra-Zeneca vaccine to all employees and their families in the Sydney LGAs of concern.
This was then extended two weeks ago to a further thirteen locations - including South Eveleigh, Chatswood, Bankstown, Hurstville, Blacktown, Cabramatta, Auburn, Liverpool and Campbelltown - in the greater Sydney area.
The new doses are part of the national roll-out that is being co-ordinated by the Federal Government's vaccination taskforce. CBA has been working closely with the taskforce to support the country-wide distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and the latest offer of the Pfizer vaccine will complement the roll-out of the mRNA vaccine by the federal and state health authorities across metropolitan Sydney.
The vaccination program is being run by CBA's corporate health provider, Vitality Works, whose experienced team of nurses operate the bank's annual flu shot service. The bank plans to extend its program nationally as more vaccine supplies become available. A survey of more than 14,000 bank employees in early August showed that almost 90 per cent of CBA's staff intend to get vaccinated.
Sian Lewis, CBA's Group Executive, Human Resources, said: "We are pleased to be able offer this additional service to our people, their families and household members in Greater Sydney given the impact of the Delta variant across the city. NSW is already doing an incredible job in getting its community vaccinated, as are other states and territories around the nation, and we want to be able to support that effort wherever and how ever we can so we can enjoy a more normal life across Australia. We encourage all eligible staff to receive the COVID-19 vaccine as recommended by the Government, and on the advice of a health practitioner.
"As an essential service, with one of the largest workforces in the country, we are committed to doing everything we can to assist the national roll-out as well as implementing safety and support measures to help keep our people, customers, and in turn the broader community, as safe as possible. The vast majority of our people have told us they want to get vaccinated and that getting access to the vaccine at a convenient time and place will help them enormously. This latest step to offer Pfizer in our voluntary vaccination program will make it easier and more convenient for those wanting to be vaccinated to do so as quickly as possible."
