The COVID Cup: The other race that restarts the nation

The Melbourne Cup has this year been declared the race that restarts a city, but across the state another race is boosting vaccination rates and helping keep Victoria out of lockdown.

Towns across the state are competing to be the most vaccinated in the state.

Dr Rob Grenfell, who until a few months ago was Director of Health and Biosecurity at CSIRO, came up with the idea after he moved back to Nutimik, the town he grew up in.

“I knew that the best way to get people to do things was to actually create a competition, because every town vies against every other town,” he told Ross and Russel.

“I thought the best way to get peoples’ attention was to make them actually take each other on.”

In Nutimik, about 80 per cent of people ages 16+ are fully vaccinated.

But other towns in the region are doing far better.

In Birchip, 94 per cent of people aged 16 or older are fully vaccinated.

That’s ok with Dr Grenfell.

“The most important thing is we’re ahead of Horsham!,” he said.

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