The Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service is taking a somewhat casual approach to the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
The health service hasn't just been administering vaccines to those who've had bookings to get one; instead, they've been offering coronavirus jabs to anyone who is eligible and walks through the door.
Winnunga chief executive Julie Tongs said most patients had been keen to take them up on the offer at their new facility at Narrabundah.
The health service had, as at Tuesday, doled out about 210 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine since they started their rollout on March 22.
"We're all over it ... we are targeting our vulnerable clients," Ms Tongs said.
"We've had a really good uptake. We also have had quite a few non-Aboriginal people over 70 that live in Narrabundah get a vaccine as well."
She said the health service would follow up with patients via text message to make sure they got their second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine 12 weeks after their first.
The strong uptake among Canberra's Aboriginal community in the first stages of the rollout contrasted starkly with recent findings about national attitudes to the vaccine.
An Australian National University study found Aboriginal people were among those who'd become less willing to get a COVID jab between August last year and January this year.
Ms Tongs said that while hesitancy wasn't an issue among Aboriginal Canberrans who were currently eligible to get the vaccine, it could be an issue as the rollout progressed.
She thought the high uptake in people who were currently eligible - including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over 55 - might be down to them wanting to be able to visit family and friends interstate.
"Being able to move freely around knowing that they've been vaccinated I think makes a big difference," Ms Tongs said.
"[People who] have got family in Brisbane [or in] all parts of the country, they want to be able to go home and visit family and I think that they think that it's better to be vaccinated to be able to do that.
"Because of the vulnerability in our community and the high numbers of Aboriginal people with multiple chronic diseases, it's not just those over 55 but it's younger people as well."
Ms Tongs said of the about 80 staff members across Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services, about 60 were fully vaccinated, having received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine as front-line workers at the Garran Surge Centre.
The rest of her staff mostly worked in administrative roles.
"Now that Winnunga is doing it, staff are actually having their vaccinations here as well," Ms Tongs said.
New Winnunga health service receptionist Connor Williams, 18, got the AstraZeneca vaccine at its Narrabundah clinic on Tuesday.
He said he didn't even feel the vaccine going into his arm, let alone any pain.
Ms Tongs it was important that Canberrans got the COVID-19 vaccine to keep the community safe.
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