Access to COVID-19 information and vaccine bookings for all Australians

Healthdirect Australia has launched several federally funded initiatives to better assist multicultural and linguistically diverse Australians to book their vaccine or booster and access COVID-19 health information.

Easy Vaccine Access – or ‘Hey EVA’

Any Australians looking to book their next vaccine appointment can simply text ‘Hey EVA’ to 0481 611 382 and receive a call back from the National Coronavirus Helpline team who can help them reach a provider.

In the text message, users are asked to provide their name, state, preferred time/date of call and, importantly, their preferred language.

The call back from the National Coronavirus Helpline may include an interpreter from the Translating and Interpreting Service to facilitate the call in the caller’s language, so that we can best assist all Australians.

This important service has provided a seamless and culturally inclusive experience for nearly 3,200 contacts as at 30 June 2022, reaching a number of diverse cohorts, with the highest users of the service including individuals aged 60 and over, those who are immunocompromised, or who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Additionally, callers to the National Coronavirus Helpline are advised to ‘press 8’ if they would prefer to speak a language other than English. This option automatically transfers the call to the Translating and Interpreting Service and reconnects with a call handler on the National Coronavirus Helpline to answer their COVID-19 questions. This is a simple and easy option at the beginning of the call, ensuring it makes the service more easily accessible and minimises the number of steps required. Nearly 4,000 Australians have used this important service, connecting them to the right information for them at the right time.

Vaccine Clinic Finder

Used more than 50 million times, the Vaccine Clinic Finder is available in 16 languages. The Vaccine Clinic Finder experience is continuously improved and recent enhancements aim to make it more accessible. These improvements include the ability to filter clinic searches by wheelchair accessibility, ‘walk-ins’ availability and clinics that offer free vaccines to those without a Medicare card, further improving equity of access and convenience in booking COVID-19 vaccination appointments.

More in-language resources for COVID-19

Everyone can now access the most up to date COVID-19 information, and the healthdirect website has a range of COVID-19 resources in 16 different languages. Forming part of a national advertising campaign, these pages inform all Australians about prevention and management of the illness, recovering from COVID-19 and when to reach out to which part of the health system.