The main coronavirus vaccine hub in south-west Victoria will start inoculating people on a walk-in basis, despite lingering supply chain issues.
The Warrnambool vaccine centre, which is operated by South West Healthcare, opened without fanfare last month with a plan of vaccinating 1,000 people a week.
That number is set to more than double this week following the state government's decision to upgrade the site to an open-access vaccination centre.
"We're all very excited," said vaccine coordinator Sue Anderton.
The facility will be open five days a week as a result of the change, with plans underway to also operate an after-hours service.
Up to 500 daily vaccine doses
Ms Anderton said the south-west community of Warrnambool had pushed for an upgrade of the town's vaccine hub.
"There's a lot of vaccine hesitancy still, but our demand has been constant.
"And we're happy with the results we're getting for our community and our community [is] keen to be vaccinated."
Ms Anderton said the centre had access to 400 to 500 doses of the vaccine each day and was currently administering between 350 to 400 inoculations daily.
South West Healthcare chief executive Craig Fraser said the new open-access designation was great news.
"The advantage of becoming a designated open-access vaccination centre is it will provide improved access to the community immediately through this expansion in opening days and times," Mr Fraser said.
"In addition, work is being done to ensure we can provide weekend and out-of-hours vaccination sessions in the near future.
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