Department of Health guidelines implemented last Thursday mean that the AstraZeneca vaccine will no longer be given to under 50s.

Helen Haines said that Border communities could not afford another closure.

"When I talk to businesses in the Border region, that is their number one concern. They're still recovering from the border closure and the thought of another one is really terrible," said Dr Haines.

"I'm very, very keen that the Prime Minister get on and give us a firm plan and a firm timeline, because the longer we go on without our population being vaccinated, the more exposed we are.

"Here on the Border we suffered more than many, many other populations around the nation because our border between Victoria and NSW was closed for 160 odd days. That was catastrophic for our local economy.

"It took us months to get the border bubble sorted out, so we really can't afford for that to happen again. We simply cannot."

Dr Haines says there needed to be clearer communication from the federal government and that a new plan had to be laid out.

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"Australia has signed a contract for additional supplies of Pfizer but we don't know when it's going to arrive. When you think about the under-50s and the really key people who need to be vaccinated quickly, which is our health workers, our frontline workers, aged and disability care staff, many of them are actually under 50."

Some critics have expressed scepticism at the Department of Health's decision to alter the guidelines on administering the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Dr Haines says that she has taken a "science first stance" since the beginning of the pandemic and will side with the advice of medical experts.

"They've told us that this (blood clots) is a very rare but significant side effect and the change to guidelines has happened as a result of that. I support that and I will also always support the scientific evidence that underpins decisions at a policy level."

Dr Haines says that the federal government has shown "poor form" through blame shifting and attacks on state governments.

"I don't want to see government ministers playing politics with this pandemic and I think it's been really poor form for federal ministers to be publicly and recklessly criticising state governments. That doesn't help anyone, we need to be working together on this and we need to make sure there is a well communicated plan."

Premier of NSW Gladys Berejiklian has called for the creation of mass vaccination hubs in major rural and urban centres. Dr Haines supports this idea, especially given the specialised storage needs of the Pfizer vaccine.

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