Tamworth region COVID-19 vaccine: Frontline hospital health workers to be vaccinated in Gunnedah from next week as Tamworth outreach program starts

A spokeswoman from Hunter New England Health (HNEH) confirmed to the Leader the outreach centre in Gunnedah was scheduled to open some time next week.

Vials of the AstraZeneca vaccine and a team of trained staff will travel to the town to vaccinate health workers at the hospital, but it will only be available to those older than 50.

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Tamworth hospital has been jabbing local staff for a month, though it has since become restricted to workers over the age of 50 after new health advice was issued two weeks ago.

"We are continuing to roll the vaccine out to the under 50s and we will be waiting on advice to how we move forward with the under 50s," the spokeswoman said.

The Tamworth clinic is working with the AstraZeneca vaccine, and HNEH stopped offering it to staff under 50 after a possible link between the dose and an extremely rare blood clotting condition was found.

She said the health district was waiting for further advice from federal and state authorities about when staff under 50 years old in both Tamworth and the outreach locations would be able to be jabbed with a different vaccine.

The rollout has gradually reached the region's hospitals and frontline workers, after the Newcastle "hub" began supplying the "satellite site" in Tamworth in late March.

The spokeswoman said more of Tamworth and Armidale's outreach locations were expected to come online for health staff in coming weeks, starting with places like Gunnedah and Inverell.

The changed health advice surrounding the AstraZeneca vaccine, as well as the large geographical area HNEH covers, means there has been no timeline set down for health staff vaccines to be done.

"Logistically, we are rolling it out as fast as we can," the spokeswoman said.

She said statistics were not available for how many people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 at the Tamworth clinic so far.

Despite the city marking one year COVID-free on April 17 and the vaccine being available to eligible Tamworth residents for more than a month now, testing rates have remained reasonably steady.

There were 361 COVID-19 swabs taken in Tamworth in the week ending April 18, compared to 313 the previous week and 523 the week before that.

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