From January 10, primary school children aged between five and 11 were able to roll their sleeves up and get jabbed with the Pfizer vaccine.

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Blair Aitken and Lylah Aitken were some of the first kids in Griffith to roll up their sleeves and get the jab and said they were very excited to be vaccinated.

"Yes I was excited to be one of the first children vaccinated in Griffith. I am happy that I am safe from COVID now," Lylah said.

"I can't wait to tell my friends at school," Blair said.

Blair said that 'it didn't hurt' and 'just felt like a scratch' whilst sister Lylah said it hurt 'only a little', receiving a lollipop as compensation.

"I felt a little bit scared but I wanted to get it to be protected from COVID," Lylah said.

"I normally am very scared when getting needles but this time I knew I needed to have it to be protected."

Practice Manager of Your Health Griffith Rosie Harriman said that in the first fortnight alone, over 200 children were booked in to receive their vaccinations.

The centre is currently receiving 200 Pfizer vaccine doses allocated for children every fortnight, with the allocation is expected to be reached once more in the fortnight to come.

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Griffith Medical Centre Practice Manager Katherine Connellan said that 140 children were booked in for the first week of vaccinations from January 10 and the following week, with that number expected to remain high in the weeks to come.

"Everyone understands the message at this point, we need to protect ourselves from COVID-19 and to do that we need to get vaccinated," Mrs Connellan said.

Over at Kookora Surgery, Practice Manager Corrine Webb said that whilst initial allocations had doubled from 100 to 200, uptake had been slow.

There were a number of dedicated vaccination clinics planned for children but some have since been moved to booster clinics instead, which have been booked out.

"We haven't seen much demand for it yet and have been slow with bookings," Mrs Webb said.

"I really just want to encourage parents to book their children in to avoid the rush to get children in and vaccinated ahead of their return to school later this month."

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