Both the Ian Collie Pharmacy and Kerr's Amcal Pharmacy on Allan St are offering the new vaccine, according to staff.
Similar to Pfizer, Moderna is a “messenger” RNA vaccine that uses genetic code to mimic the protein spike in COVID-19.
In September, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration approved Moderna for recipients 12 years and over having previously approved it for those over 17 years of age in August.
For maximum efficacy, the vaccine is delivered in two doses four weeks apart, according to the Australian Department of Health.
“The Moderna vaccine does not contain any live virus, and it cannot give you COVID-19,” a spokesperson for the department said.
Common side-effects of the vaccine include pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache, muscle pain, fever and chills and joint pain, with most dissipating within two to three days, according to the department.
The addition of Moderna, joining Pfizer and AstraZeneca in the vaccination armoury, will boost Victoria’s race to the 70 and 80 per cent fully vaccinated benchmarks, according to Premier Daniel Andrews.
“All three of these vaccines work. All three of them are safe,” he said on Thursday when also reporting the state’s fully vaccinated rate had reached almost 50 per cent.
“There should be no sense of anything other than urgency.”
The Victorian Government plans on lifting many restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic in October and November when the two benchmarks are predicted to be reached.
The downside of lifting restrictions will mean the virus will almost certainly be free to spread, according to leading epidemiologists, at which stage COVID-19 will become a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”.
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