Uralla Shire is 100 per cent double vaxxed in fight against COVID-19

With the local GP and nurse sacrificing their weekends to get the community protected, they have administered thousands of jabs and gone above and beyond, to serve their community.

And that's part of the reason people traveled from as far as Tenterfield and Gunnedah to the centre to get protected from the pandemic.

It's an impressive feat according to local MP, Adam Marshall.

"I thank GPs like the amazing Dr Ricardo Alkhouri and his team at the Uralla Medical Centre. Dr Ricardo and one of his nurse practitioners have administered thousands of jabs, just the two of them, at their medical centre doing weekend clinics.

"Having been jabbed there myself I speak from experience that they do a magnificent job. It literally is a slick, well-oiled production line machine," Mr Marshall said.

"The overwhelming number of Northern Tablelands residents who have stood up, lined up and rolled up their sleeves in an effort to do their part to protect themselves, their families and the community to get themselves out of lockdown and back to business has been overwhelming and outstanding."

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Chief Health Officer, Dr Kerry Chant said vaccination numbers were "inching incredibly slowly upward" toward the 95 per cent target for New South Wales after first doses for adults ticked up to 94.7 per cent.

The number of adults in the Northern Tablelands who had received their first jab passed 90 per cent in October.

But there are still three local governments areas in the region still to hit this milestone, with 88.9 per cent of eligible residents in Armidale, 92.2 per cent in Inverell, 86.5 in Moree, 93.7 in Glen Innes, 88.5 in Tenterfield and more than 95 per cent of Tamworth shires fully vaccinated.

Armidale's vax rate has crept up 0.7 per cent, or 178 jabs since November 28 while Glen Innes climbed 0.6 per cent (44). Moree has seen the biggest increase at 1.5 per cent for the same time frame, or 154 jabs, and Inverell has grown 1.2 per cent (161).

But the youth vaccination rate for those between 12 and 15 could be rising faster, Dr Chant said, with this age group the lowest among those eligible at 78.8 per cent fully vaccinated and 84.3 per cent having received one jab.

"I think there's a little bit of room for improvement here," said Dr Chant.

"I would urge all parents ... to make those appointments and get your children vaccinated."

As the number of new cases drops locally, testing numbers across the Hunter New England have lessened, data shows.

There have been 121,160 tests conducted across the district in the four weeks up until 8pm on December 8.

In our region, for the same time, there were 2875 swabs done in Armidale, 604 in Glen Innes, 2561 in Inverell, 3225 in Moree, 555 in Tenterfield LGAs and 7303 in Tamworth.

In comparison, that is about half the amount of tests taken for the same time last month.

On Friday Hunter New England Health was notified of a recent detection of COVID-19 virus fragments from the sewage treatment plant at Uralla, where there are no known cases.

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