Vaccination rates have been on the rise across the Riverina after a number of exposure sites were announced this month.
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The Murrumbidgee Local Health District has administered roughly 22,000 COVID-19 vaccinations across the district to date. It doesn't issue a day-by-day breakdown of vaccination numbers, only by milestone.
MLHD COVID coordinator Emma Field, however, said that the rate of vaccinations is steadily increasing week-on-week.
"We are very much at capacity and we are doing the maximum capacity of vaccinations," she added.
The Wagga vaccination clinic currently has a waiting period of around 5-6 weeks for jabs, Ms Field said. There is a 3-4 week wait in Deniliquin and Young, and in Griffith, the wait is less than a week.
Ms Field said that testing numbers across the region also increased during the week given the exposure sites in Hay, Jindera, Gundagai and North Albury where a crew of removalists passed through, and two later tested positive to the virus.
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"We saw well over a couple of hundred (tests) here in Wagga over the weekend but certainly in Albury, much bigger numbers," she said, unable to provide exact figures due to the testing going through private pathology providers.
"We have been told anecdotally from those providers that they did see an increase in testing."
11 people across the region have been deemed close contacts at the exposure sites, and are in self-isolation.
MLHD executive director of medical services Len Bruce has called on those eligible across the district to roll up their sleeve and get vaccinated.
Currently, the MLHD will only administer AstraZeneca to people over 60. Dr Bruce acknowledged concern in the community surrounding the vaccine, but said that the jab will greatly reduce the risk of hospitalisation due to COVID - with one shot reducing the risk by 71 per cent, and two shots by 92 per cent.
"If we look at the risk of dying from a clot because of your AstraZeneca vaccine, it's less than one in a million," he said.
"AstraZeneca is a very safe and effective vaccine, and it is even effective against the Delta variant."
Dr Bruce encouraged those under 60 to "talk to your GP to discuss your own individual risk profile, and then make a sensible decision" as to getting AstraZeneca.
He also said the arrival of an extra 3 million doses of Pfizer in Australia will help the MLHD vaccinate members of the community under 60.
"Clearly vaccination is our most effective strategy to manage COVID," Dr Bruce said. In the meantime, he encourages the community to continue social distancing, mask wearing, hand hygiene and staying home when sick.
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