PEOPLE from the Central Coast are permitted to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at the new Belmont hub, but there are strategies in place to identify anyone from red zones, Hunter New England Health's Dr David Durrheim says.
The public health physician said the opening of the mass vaccination hub at Belmont on Monday was a "very exciting day" after the effort and sacrifices of the past 18 months.
"I am ecstatic," Dr Durrheim said. "We put in a huge public health effort to buy time so that people could be protected with vaccination, and here we are."
Related: How to book your vaccination at Belmont hub
The mass vaccination clinic will only offer the Pfizer vaccine to those who are eligible for now, but it has capacity to expand to include AstraZeneca should the need arise.
Dr Durrheim said while supply issues of the vaccine had been a "major constraint" throughout the COVID-19 response, he said the Commonwealth Government had secured an extra million doses of Pfizer per week.
"Which will be great relief," he said. "We have a community that is really energised and that wants to be vaccinated. The last thing we want is not to meet that demand. So it is very reassuring that additional supplies have now been procured."
Dr Durrheim said hub staff would "weed out" anybody from Greater Sydney who was there to get a vaccine.
"The Central Coast is slightly different, and there is a strategy in place at the clinic to identify those folks and to make sure they are corralled into a separate area to be vaccinated.
"What we ask of them though is they should not come up if they have respiratory symptoms or fever.
"Instead, they should get tested and isolate, and re-book. There is a contact number to allow re-booking if they are ill.
"If people do come up from the Central Coast, it must be for vaccination alone. Then go home. They should not be stopping at any other venues."
So far, Newcastle has managed to dodge any local cases of COVID-19, and sewage surveillance had not detected the virus.
There has been a new exposure site at Wallsend overnight, at west-bound Coles Express service station on Saturday.
"We have had no COVID cases over the weekend," Dr Durrheim said. "A few people were exposed both locally - with the 7-Eleven incident with the removalists - but also people who had a reasonable excuse to be in Sydney, and were exposed, are now in home isolation. But fortunately, no one has come back with COVID yet."
