Albury Wodonga Health shares the latest on the vaccination program

Ms Shanahan said there were more than 1000 vaccination appointments available over the next month across the Albury Wodonga Health network, including the Wangaratta, Bright, Beechworth, Myrtleford and Corryong sub-hubs.

"We can easily accommodate all people aged between 16 and 39 years who may have booked recently," she said.

"With the announcement yesterday we did some work looking through all our appointments and ... the vaccines stocks that we have on hand right now and the ... new vaccines that will be arriving next week.

"We can confidently say that we've got enough vaccines on hand and that are coming that will enable us to cover all the appointments that are booked at the moment."

She said people between 16 and 59 who had already booked in for an AstraZeneca shot would be offered the Pfizer vaccine.

"When people present for their vaccination, they'll be able to chose and they'll be offered a choice whether they'd like to progress with an AstraZeneca vaccine or flip to a Pfizer vaccine," she said.

Ms Shanahan said the Wodonga High Street vaccination clinic would trial extending its opening hours this Friday night.

"One of the things we are doing this week is the vaccination hub here in Wodonga will be open until 7.30pm on Friday night," she said.

"Particularly to support people who may be working shift work or working across the day.

"We know a lot of people are working from home at the moment, juggling working from home with homeschooling and other care and living responsibilities, so the hub will be open until 7.30pm this Friday."

She said Albury Wodonga Health would assess the community response before deciding whether to extend opening hours permanently.

"At the moment we're trialing that for this week and just seeing if it's a time that fits well with the community," she said.

"We'll balance it and see how well it works across the week for the demand we'll see.

"Obviously we've got a fixed amount of staffing within the unit, so we're just working with the team and looking at what the response is from the community and if Friday night is a good night to remain open, we've been able to do the work to keep the vax hub open on a Friday night."

Ms Shanahan said this week priority workers could walk in to access vaccination.

"The other thing we do have happening this week is walk in appointments for priority work force groups, so that's particularly for people who are working in age care or disability care," she said.

Ms Shanahan said she expected more aged care workers to come forward to meet the Federal Government's September 16 deadline for first dose vaccinations.

"By the 16th September all aged care workers need to have at least one dose of AstraZeneca or Pfizer," she said.

"We have seen a really good response this week of people coming forward to get their first dose and certainly for people to get their second dose too."

Issues with booking vaccine appointments

Within minutes of bookings opening, the website appeared to buckle due to high traffic.

Ms Shanahan thanked the community for their persistence in trying to book.

"Unfortunately, because of the significant response we've seen the 1800 phone number is experiencing delays and the online booking portal has had some glitches today," she said.

"The best thing that we can ask for people to do is to just have patience and keep trying.

"They're working really swiftly to get both back up and functioning as best we can.

"It's just really a matter of patience and asking people to book through both those channels for appointments and persist in trying to get through."

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Ms Shanahan said there had been an influx in people requesting vaccinations appointments over the last month, particularly since the Shepparton outbreak.

"They're getting snapped up pretty quickly," she said.

"We have seen a really great uptick, I think we've seen about a 43 per cent increase of people requesting vaccinations in the last month or so, which is a really phenomenal response."

Ms Shanahan said the increase was driven by a couple of factors.

"If COVID does come a bit closer to you, you do get a little more anxious and we do see a big response from the community at those times," she said.

"The general increase in COVID cases both across Victoria and NSW recently has encouraged people to come out and get vaccinations.

"One of the other key factors is the social restrictions that we're experiencing again, so with both states in lockdown and particularly being here on the border having both NSW and Victoria in lockdown, it is a great motivator for people."

Ms Shanahan said more young people had also been seeking vaccination.

"The announcement for young people a couple of weeks ago to have access to AstraZeneca has really pushed the enquiry and the demand up," she said.

"We've seen quite a fantastic response from young people across the region seeking vaccination."

Ms Shanahan said Albury Wodonga Health had a "low" vaccine wastage rate across the network.

"We sit at well below two per cent for our wastage rate, which is a really phenomenal outcome," she said.

"We're doing the work at the moment just manage the Pfizer and AstraZeneca availabilities so we can match it to the doses that we've got.

"Having a network of hubs across Victoria we're able to manage the vaccine that comes in."

Ms Shanahan said was wastage occurred in a number of ways, but predominantly through people not turning up for appointments.

"We have a less than 5 per cent no show rate for our vaccination hub, which is pretty low," she said.

"We're really thankful for the community for their commitment seeing the vaccine program through, but unfortunately, we do bank on a certain number of people coming through the hub and our vaccine program each day, so [wastage] is if people don't show and don't notify us or cancel their appointment and we've got vaccine mixed up ready to go.

"We understand that lots of things come up for people throughout the day ... over 95 per cent of people who are booking appointments are turning up for appointments."

Ms Shanahan asked people who were unable to make their appointments to let the system know by calling the 1800 number or logging on using the online portal.

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