There are three places you should be able to get the COVID-19 vaccination in the Southern Highlands in the coming days, and on Friday morning they were rolling their sleeves up and getting ready to jab.
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But by Friday afternoon at least two of them had cold feet when the vaccine delivery had not appeared.
Southern Medical Centre in Moss Vale, Mt Gibraltar General Practice in Bowral, and Mittagong HealthCare Centre are listed as the first clinics in the Highlands to offer the AstraZeneca phase 1b roll out.
Southern Medical Centre planned to start on Saturday morning, but by mid-afternoon Friday, March 19, they announced they were cancelling appointments in light of the uncertainty of delivery.
Appointments were being rescheduled to Wednesday.
At Mt Gibraltar General Practice, the vaccine also hadn't arrived by 3pm.
"We had hoped to start on Monday, but if not we'll have to cancel Monday's appointments and start on Tuesday," said practice manager Lorreece Butcher.
"There's certainly a big demand - we've made 380 appointments in the last two days...the phone has not stopped."
But Mittagong HealthCare Centre are still taking appointments for those eligible for Phase 1b delivery.
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Phase 1b includes people aged over 70, 'other health care workers,' Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders over 55, adults with specified medical conditions, adults with a disability who have a specified underlying medical condition and critical and high risk workers such as defence, police, fire, emergency services and meat processing personnel.
Other medical centres will be listed as vaccination venues when their vaccines are ordered, a process that will be staggered.
Dr Vince Roche, from Southern Medical Centre and also the Southern Highlands Division of General Practice spokesman, said the Southern Medical Centre had been inundated with calls for the 80 vaccines they had available in the first week, and advised people that the roll out would be a long process.
"We're confident that the supply will increase but this will take months," Dr Roche said.
"In the meantime, don't panic."
Mittagong HealthCare Centre's practice manager Brett Hudson said they had plenty of appointments left to accommodate eligible people.
"We're not going to run out of vaccine and we will have enough appointments," said Mr Hudson.
"All our doctors and nurses are fully trained in it, and we've trained extra staff as well."
He said appointments could be made online or by calling the centre.
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