Today 150 emergency and frontline staff under the age of 50 will be vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, as SA's first mass vaccination hub opens.
The Goyder Pavillion at the Adelaide Showground will initially be a Pfizer specialist clinic, with young adults and people with existing medical conditions also to be included in early vaccinations.
The hub will begin administering the AstraZeneca jab to over-50s from May 10.
SA Premier Steven Marshall said bookings are essential, and can be made on the SA Health website.
“People will book online, then come in here, fill out all of their forms, and will have plenty of opportunity to ask questions," he said.
"The AstraZeneca jab remains perfectly safe and effective for those over 50, but for those under 50 we would move to Pfizer."
Australia is expected to receive a significant shipment of Pfizer vaccines by mid-May.
SA Health also said car parking at the site would be free.
SA 'third' in vaccine rollout
Despite reports in recent weeks that SA has been dead last in the national coronavirus vaccine rollout, Mr Marshall insisted his state was now coming third.
"I don't like to be competitive, but we are doing better than Queensland, Victoria, and NSW," he said.
"We are now up on a daily run rate of 5000 doses, and that’s going to increase as we open this mass vaccination clinic."
The Health Minister Stephen Wade said the mass vaccination hub would gradually increase to provide 3,000 vaccinations a week.
More mass vaccination hubs are set to open at Elizabeth and Noarlunga by early June, with the Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier insisting the staged rollout was deliberate.
From next week the Women's and Children's Hospital will open up bookings to anyone aged 50 and over to get the AstraZeneca vaccine.
'Hub should have opened weeks ago', says Labor
The state opposition has been critical of the speed of South Australia's vaccine rollout.
Shadow Health Minister Chris Picton said the mass vaccination hub should have opened weeks ago, like in other states.
"With over 50,000 doses in stockpile, why are only 150 people per day allowed at the showgrounds and other clinics not opening until June?" Mr Picton said.
"With the SA Government rollout the slowest in the country we need multiple mass clinics opening and at full capacity as soon as possible.
"The fact that bookings are not even open is surprising and confusing for people who have been waiting and waiting to be able to get their jab."
Another man admitted to hospital
A man in his 60s has been transferred from the dedicated COVID-19 hotel Tom's Court to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in the past day.
SA Health said he had been in hotel quarantine since arriving in Australia and had not come from India.
Two new cases have been recorded, a man in his 30s and a man in his 40s, both in hotel quarantine.
There are two people in hospital with the virus with 34 active cases in the state.
