Millions of Australians can soon get vaccinated in a giant BUNNINGS with nurses racing to give out 20,000 a jabs a week at NSW’s second mass Covid vaccine centre
- Former Bunnings will be converted into NSW’s second mass vaccination hub
- The Belmont site aims to administer 20,000 jabs a week from mid-July
- Follows early success of the state’s first vaccine hub at Sydney Olympic Park
A former Bunnings warehouse will be transformed into a makeshift mass coronavirus vaccination centre by the New South Wales government.
The former site at Belmont in the state’s Lake Macquarie region will have the capacity to administer up to 20,000 vaccines each week when it opens in mid-July.
It will be the second mass vaccination hub to be opened in NSW and will administer both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.
‘Our mass vaccination centre at Sydney Olympic Park has been a huge success, vaccinating more than 5,000 people a day already,’ Premier Gladys Berejiklian Berejiklian said.
NSW’s second mass vaccination hub will be set up in the state’s Lake Macquarie region. Pictured is Premier Gladys Berejikilian getting her second coronavirus jab
‘We are planning to replicate that model in the Hunter region, so we can quickly and safely vaccinate as many people as possible across NSW.’
The centre will employ up to 100 nurses, 25 pharmacists or pharmacy technicians plus around 200 other support staff.
‘More than half a million people to date have fronted for testing, so I am confident the community will register online to get vaccinated at this new centre, or with their GP, and encourage others to do the same,’ NSW health minister Brad Hazzard said.
About 150 workers will spend the next six weeks converting the former Bunnings site.
Hunter New England Local Health District chief executive Michael DiRienzo was delighted to host the state’s second mass vaccination centre in the Hunter.
‘It is no small task to transform an empty warehouse into a vaccination centre capable of inoculating thousands every day. It’s a great service you’re doing for our community,’ he said.
Bookings will be required to receive the jab at the new vaccination centre.