By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Days before his scheduled booster shot, Greater Dandenong councillor Sean O’Reilly came down with Covid.
“It’s not fun,” the councillor said of the long bout of sapping fatigue, fever, sore throat and headaches on 27 January.
“People are playing with fire if they are planning to deliberately get it. It’s really variable how hard it hits people.”
After about 11 days, he was just getting back to full strength, he said.
The virus “cycled” through his household, requiring weeks of isolation during summer holidays. He was the last member to get infected.
Cr O’Reilly was one of the early adopters of AstraZeneca, baring his arm for a vaccine at the Sandown Racecourse hub in late May.
“I was planning to get a triple booster but it was hard getting appointments.
“Then I caught Covid a few days before my appointment. I’ll still get my booster once I’m well again.”
Cr O’Reilly is one of more than 18,300 Covid cases in Greater Dandenong since the start of the pandemic.
After a spike in early January, new infections in Greater Dandenong plateaued to about 200 in the week up to 28 January. In that same period, 148 Victorians died with Covid.
As of the day before, 238 patients with Covid were in Monash Health hospitals, including 14 ventilated in ICU.
Nearly 13,000 vaccine appointments were available at Monash Health vaccine hubs.
Walk-in appointments are available for 5-and-over years at Dandenong Plaza Vaccination Clinic, 9am to 4pm, seven days.
