TAMWORTH'S first ever mass vaccination hub saw 253 people walk through the door at the sports dome to receive their jab.
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It was well under what officials had been hoping for, but the percentage of first doses administered was something that pleased University of New England vice-chancellor, professor Brigid Heywood.
"It's not as many as we'd hoped, but all of the ones we've done, I think with the exception of two, were first vaccinations," she said.
"So that's a big step forward for the kind of community we were supporting today."
Organisers had been anticipating between 600 to 800 people, but Ms Heywood said a range of issues could have contributed to the lower turnout.
She said some people could still be unsure whether to come out at the moment, given the ambiguity around lockdown and Tamworth's sewage results.
It was announced on Sunday that traces of the virus that leads to COVID-19 was found in Tamworth sewage for a sixth consecutive time.
Meanwhile, Ms Heywood believes others are still showing hesitancy not only towards AstraZeneca - which was the only jab available at the hub - but vaccines in general.
One major positive that did come out of the day, however, was the chance to train up local staff ahead of the follow-up mass hub in a month's time.
"We've trained up a whole cohort of staff from Tamworth Regional Council and the nursing community so they can run the clinic now with the university supporting them, rather than the university running the clinic itself," she said.
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"So that's a massive step, and we can now repeat this at scale, this is the most amazing facility to do things at scale, which is what we needed to learn to do."
The clinic was a partnership between Tamworth Regional Council, the Primary Health Network, Hunter New England Health, and the University of New England.
The Tamworth local government area's double vaccination rate also received a boost on Saturday, with 250 people receiving their second dose of Pfizer at the Tamworth Aboriginal Medical Service. It was a follow up from its August 21 walk-in clinic.
Meanwhile in Gunnedah, people from around the shire are preparing to head to the showground between 9:30am and 4pm on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday for the walk-up Pfizer hub.
The clinic is being run by the Royal Flying Doctor Service, which is also setting up clinics at Mullaley Hall on Thursday and Curlewis Hall on Friday - both between 10am and 4pm.
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