BENDIGO doctors are reiterating their calls for the community to come out and get vaccinated against COVID-19.
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Bendigo Primary Care clinical director Dr Sheriden Emonson received her second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Saturday morning.
She said while the advice around AstraZeneca had changed, people who have had their first dose of the vaccine should not be afraid.
"The advice from the Department of Health is that if you didn't have any serious adverse events from the first dose, it's very safe to go ahead and get the second dose," Dr Emonson said.
"We know with real-world data from other countries that the risk is very much reduced with our second dose for that rare side effect of TTS (blood clots)."
Dr Emonson said that overall, the AstraZeneca vaccine was "very safe and effective".
"I think our community needs to remember that in the face of further lockdowns and further outbreaks, the message is we need to get vaccinated as soon as possible with what we've got available," she said.
"So because I've had my first dose, I was very keen to complete that and be fully immunised."
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Bendigo Primary Care has been administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to patients through the federal government's general practitioner rollout.
The centre will continue to provide the vaccines on Saturday mornings until September 16.
"We have been very happy with our community's participation," Dr Emonson said. "We've had lots of patients ring up and our clinics have been full.
"We have also been really pleased that we haven't had a lot of vaccine hesitancy in our clinics. We've had people turn up and not cancel their appointments."
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