About PHU

Vaccinations

COVID-19 Vaccinations

Vaccination against COVID-19 is the best way to protect yourself and others.

For more informmation on COVID-19 Vaccinations or to make a booking, click here.

Other Immunisations

Barwon Health Immunisation Service, working under contract for the City of Greater Geelong, provides immunisation services to all residents in the Greater Geelong region. The service provides all vaccines on the National  Immunisation Program Schedule including infant, pre-schooler, secondary students and adult vaccines.

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus) and the need to keep our community safe, there have been changes to our normal sessions and venues. Please do not attend the sessions if you or your child is unwell, has been overseas in the last 14 days or has a temperature. Only one caregiver should attend with a client and no extra siblings if possible.

For more information on the Barwon Health Immunisation service, click here.

Contact tracing

In response to the second Victorian wave of COVID-19 in June 2020, Barwon Health (BH) established a regional contact tracing hub including a team of interdisciplinary clinicians. To enhance the operation of Victoria’s COVID-19 case, contact tracing and outbreak management, through a collaboration with the Victorian Department of Health, the previous regional contact tracing hub at BH has transitioned into a Regional Response Unit for the Barwon South West region (BSW). The BSW Public Health Unit (PHU) is responsible for the provision of end-to-end care and clinical oversight for COVID-19 positive patients and contacts in the Barwon South West Region with a population of 448,997.

Objectives

1. To provide end-to-end care and clinical oversight for COVID-19 Positive patients and contacts in the BSWR
2. To limit the transmission of COVID-19 in the BSWR community 
3. Support people isolating or quarantining and escalating care as required
4. Lead the way for a decentralised contact tracing model in regional Victoria

Antivirals

Antivirals - changing the way we treat COVID-19

As the fight against COVID-19 continues, public health clinicians in the Barwon South West have a new treatment for COVID patients to prevent serious illness and hospitalisation.

While vaccination and particularly booster doses are still the best way to prevent severe COVID-19, oral antiviral treatments can be used as another tool to help particularly vulnerable adults.

Paxlovid® and Lagevrio® are oral antiviral agents meaning that they can be taken in tablet or capsule form.

Both of these medications have recently been provisionally approved for the treatment of COVID-19 by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) of Australia and are already being used in other countries around the world including the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Japan.

These antivirals may be offered to COVID-19 positive people at risk of severe disease but who are early in their illness and well enough to be treated in the community to prevent them from needing hospitalisation.

For more information, speak to your doctor to find out whether you qualify.