Hours extended at McIntosh Centre vaccination hub as COVID-19 vaccination numbers spike

Residents who lined up for the jab reported the entire process took up to 70 minutes, but praised the local hub as "very efficient".

This comes as Victoria entered day one of a seven-day lockdown today in response to the state’s growing coronavirus outbreak.

One of the five reasons to leave home during this period is to get vaccinated, with the state rollout expanding today to allow all people aged 40 to 49 to receive the Pfizer shot.

People aged over 50 are also eligible – receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine – as are people who are part of groups priority 1a, select cohorts of priority 1b.

The vaccination process alone takes around 30 minutes, and people must remain at the hospital for observation for 15 minutes post-vaccination.

Over 50s are welcome to simply walk in to the McIntosh Centre for their jab, but under 50s must call 1800 675 398 to book, selecting options 1 - 1 - 1.

The booking line is open from 8 am to 8 pm.

GV Health warned residents there was currently a “very high volume” of calls to the COVID-19 booking line.

State-wide, more than 77,000 calls were made to the COVID-19 hotline in just 15 minutes yesterday morning, causing the system to crash.

Many people report they are still struggling to get through.

But at this morning's COVID-19 press conference, Victorian contact tracing chief Jeroen Weimar said Telstra had doubled phone capacity to vaccination call centres, with more than 630 people now manning the phones.

"We continue to add people onto our vaccination booking system over the coming days to deal with this demand," he said.

"I'm also pleased to confirm we saw 10,000 bookings confirmed yesterday for the next couple of days."

National uptake of the vaccine dropped in recent months after reports of an extremely rare blood clot side effect cast doubt over the AstraZeneca vaccine.

But demand has spiked again since Melbourne's outbreak first emerged Monday.

On Thursday, more than 500 vaccinations were completed at the McIntosh Centre – a record day – with more than 700 vaccinations in total across all four GV Health vaccination sites.

The hospital  said it would continue COVID-19 testing and vaccinations for the duration of the snap lockdown, with anyone eligible urged to receive the jab.

"COVID hasn't gone away," Goulburn Valley Health COVID-19 vaccination program medical lead Dr Helen Roberts said.

"We’ve had a period of stability for a number of months in Victoria but we now know that it is still here and the way to protect yourself, your family and your community is to come and get vaccinated.

"I was impressed by Shepparton last year. I’m not local to the region but I’ve been here for six years and I saw what the town could do and the region could do. And we can do it again."

Dr Roberts said Melbourne's outbreak had aided the push for people to be vaccinated against coronavirus.

"As soon as we were able to open up to the over-50 group in Shepparton and across the region, we saw an awful lot of people come forward for vaccination," she said.

"We’ve had a steady increase since then as the community has gained faith in our service and the vaccination they’re about to receive."

The GV Health vaccination hub at the McIntosh Centre at the Shepparton Showgrounds, corner Thompson and High St, is open from 9 am to 4 pm, Monday to Friday.

The hub will also be open this weekend only – Saturday, May 29 and Sunday, May 30 from 9 am to 3.30 pm.

If you have COVID-19 symptoms, however mild, you should seek advice and get tested.

COVID-19 testing is available at the GV Health Acute Respiratory Clinic, Graham St, Shepparton.

Opening hours are 8 am to 4 pm, seven days a week.