THE Western District Health Service (WDHS) has encouraged Southern Grampians residents to book in for their third jab.

WDHS chief medical officer, Dr Dale Ford, said that the response over the last month has been excellent, but more people need to step up for their third shot.

“Omicron is slightly different to the original COVID virus, and because it’s different, the vaccine doesn’t cover it as well.

“The only way to increase current vaccine effectiveness, is to get antibody levels in the blood to a higher level,” Dr Ford said.

“Each time you have another vaccine your antibody levels increase, so that is essentially why you need three vaccines for Omicron.”

Royal Melbourne Hospital infectious diseases expert, Dr Joe Sasadeusz, who has consulted to WDHS throughout the pandemic, agreed with the importance of the jab.

According to Dr Sasadeusz, when you are infected with a virus or bacteria, your immune system makes antibodies specifically to fight it and your immune system can also safely learn to make antibodies through vaccination.

Once you have antibodies to a particular disease, they provide some protection from that disease.

“The issue is that Omicron requires higher antibody levels to neutralise the virus and booster vaccines achieve this. So, if it’s been months since your second dose, you really need to book an appointment as soon as you can for your booster,” Dr Sasadeusz said.

According to State Government data, 90 per cent of people hospitalised in Victoria have the Omicron variant and Dr Ford said that people also need to be aware of the possible long-term effects of the virus.

“Some people who test positive continue to experience fatigue after their COVID symptoms resolve, and we just don’t know the long-term effects of the virus on the body.

“The notion of long COVID is still being investigated, so protecting yourself with a booster shot, is really important,” Dr Ford said.

He also stated that overall, the Southern Grampians shire can be very proud of the local response to the Omicron wave.

“We have seen no deaths in the Southern Grampians from COVID-19 and generally we are seeing milder infections than were reported earlier on.

“When people are at higher risk of complications, we’ve largely been able to give them ‘rescue medications’ to prevent their disease getting to a severe level, where they might have required oxygen and other interventions.

“Even so, some people are still becoming quite sick and older people remain more vulnerable to the virus,” Dr Ford said.

“There are over 50,000 active cases of COVID-19 in Victoria and that number is expected to remain into the future.

“The virus continues to spread, and we need to ensure that we are doing everything to stem a further spike in case numbers as we saw over the Christmas and New Year period.

“It’s now not a matter of if, but when you get COVID-19 and the best defence continues to be vaccination.” Ford said.

The Federal Government announced on Friday that the definition of COVID-19 status will change from ‘fully vaccinated’ to ‘up to date’, with ‘up to date’ meaning that people have completed all of the recommended doses for their age and individual health needs, including their boosters.

Booster appointments are available at WDHS, local GP’s and Pharmacies.

To book visit portal.cvms.vic.gov.au.

From midday on Monday, Victoria will end its three week-long Pandemic Code Brown, allowing private hospitals to perform up to 50 per cent of all elective surgery in Metropolitan Melbourne and up to 75 per cent of all elective surgery in regional areas.