COVID-19 vaccination delivery in Bendigo has been slowed by low supply of doses across Australia, the city's health service has warned.
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About 1000 people - about 650 frontline healthcare workers or state aged care staff and about 350 aged care residents - have been vaccinated at the Bendigo Health hub since it began operation on March 1.
Bendigo Health chair Bob Cameron said vaccination rates were slow because there was not yet much vaccine in the country, but would speed up when vaccine manufacture began in Australia.
Mr Cameron said at the current rate it would take 16 weeks to vaccinate all priority 1a people in the Loddon Mallee, about 4000.
But he said Bendigo Health expected significant change in April, after vaccine manufacture began at the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory.
"As we get [the vaccine], we will put it into people's arms. But what we do know, is there is not much vaccine in the country, that things are slow at the moment," Mr Cameron said.
"We would expect in April to see a very significant change ... which is obviously going to be a good thing."
Mr Cameron said the Bendigo vaccine hub capacity was such that if supply wasn't an issue, nearly all of the 4000 Loddon Mallee residents in 1a would have been vaccinated by now.
Bendigo Health infectious disease physician Andrew Mahony said there had been no serious reactions to the vaccine among those immunised.
Dr Mahony said he had a sore arm for about a day after his shot, but no other symptoms, in common with the vast majority of those vaccinated.
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Mr Cameron said those who were vaccinated in the early stages of the hub's operation would receive their second shot next week.
He said Bendigo Health was waiting to see if its hub would be needed to administer vaccines to those in subsequent stages of Australia's vaccine rollout.
Bendigo general practitioners are set to begin administering vaccinations from Monday to those in phase 1b of the rollout.
Rollout of the vaccine to Bendigo aged care residents began in February.
The Department of Health was contacted for comment on this story.
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