Mr Cameron said it had taken a community effort to reach the top of the chart and he hoped the uptake popularity would continue.

"It requires a team effort and Bendigo Health thanks the community," Mr Cameron said.

"Now Bendigo sits at the top of the table and there's only one way to go from there. Our quest is to make sure we stay at the top.

"We're fortunate that we've had good strong messaging from Bendigo Health and local media where we've seen talk of people wanting to get vaccinated and I think it's made a real difference.

"Local media should take their hats off as they've forged the region forward."

IN OTHER NEWS:

Federal Member for Bendigo Lisa Chesters also praised central Victorian healthcare services and local media on Tuesday for the high uptakes for the vaccine roll-out across Bendigo which saw 52.6 per cent of people aged 15 and over had received their first dose in the region.

Almost 60,000 Pfizer appointments were opened on Wednesday for eligible Victorians over the coming month and more than 15,000 extra open appointments were also set aside for prioritised workers.

Thousands of AstraZeneca appointments were also opened, with walk up appointments also available, for people aged 60 and over.

A recent analysis of the COVID-19 Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines showed that none of the locally acquired COVID-19 cases hospitalised during the July outbreak were fully vaccinated.

Mr Cameron said there was no time like the present to roll-up your sleeves.

"We want people encouraging each other to get vaccinated if they need to be," he said. "We want people to get vaccinated as we know now the worst time to get vaccinated is when we are in an outbreak - just look at Sydney.

Mr Cameron said Bendigo Health staff also praised people rolling-up their sleeves to be vaccinated and said the overwhelming majority of people had been respectful through the process.

"It's all ultimately about supply and we know the roll-out has been slow," he said.

"It will pick up the pace in September and we want to make sure we're keep getting people through the door.

"We're doing about 600 vaccinations a day but we have the capacity to do 1000 and we want to be doing 1000.

"Two months ago AstraZeneca was extremely difficult for people to take up, but now that's changed.

"We've got to be vaccinated to avoid lockdowns but on top of that, now it's a matter of civic pride; we want to stay number one in the nation."

READ MORE:

Victorians currently eligible for the vaccine under the Commonwealth's COVID-19 vaccination program include everyone aged 40 and over, and large numbers of people under 40 such as health care workers and people with specified underlying medical conditions.

More than 1.6 million doses have been delivered through Victoria's 52 state-run high-volume, hospital, community, and pop-up vaccination centres - more than any other state or territory.

General practitioners, pharmacists and Aboriginal controlled community health organisations are also administering the vaccine across Victoria.

To check your eligibility for the vaccines head to the Federal Government's Department of Health website.

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