Former Lake Macquarie Bunnings to become Covid mass vaccination hub

The state’s second vaccination hub has gone from selling sausage sizzles to delivering Covid jabs.

A former Bunnings Warehouse will become the second mass vaccination site in NSW, speeding up the vaccination rollout by up to 20,000 doses every week.

The Lake Macquarie site is set to open in mid-July, with around 150 people now converting the centre into a vaccination centre.

It will employ up to 100 nurses, 25 pharmacists or pharmacy technicians, and 200 other support staff.

When completed, the Lake Macquarie site will administer both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.

The former Bunnings store at Lake Macquarie which will become the state’s second vaccination hub. Picture: Supplied

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the Hunter Region site would “replicate” the model of the Olympic Park vaccination hub which “has been a huge success”.

The former Bunnings store was the “people’s pick” for a mass vaccination site in the Hunter.

“One of the big attractions is that people know where the Bunnings store was, they know that it’s got fabulous parking, it’s easy to get to,” Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.

“I reckon there’ll be a lot of people hoping there are sausage sizzles outside when they arrive for their jab,” he said.

Inside the former Bunnings warehouse in Lake Macquarie. Picture: Supplied

Staff at the existing Homebush site have consistently been administering more than 5,000 jabs each day.

NSW Health was on Monday expected to pass a milestone 500,000 vaccine doses.

In data dating to Saturday night, 499,725 Covid-19 vaccine doses had been administered by NSW Health. Of those, 80,729 people had been fully vaccinated.

Almost 100,000 doses had been administered under the Commonwealth rollout by Saturday night.

A former Bunnings Warehouse in Lake Macquarie will become our state's second mass vaccination hub from mid July. Picture: Supplied

After Health Minister Greg Hunt announced Victoria would receive an extra 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, Ms Berejiklian on Monday called for NSW to get “it’s fair share” of the Commonwealth stockpile.

“None of the additional doses that are going to Victoria are coming at the expense of any other state,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

Mr Morrison said NSW will receive “over 100,000” Pfizer doses each week from next month, up from the current allocation of 80,000.

NSW GPs will get an extra 50,000 doses this month.

Mr Hazzard said the Hunter New England community had been “outstanding” in getting tested for Covid-19, and said he was “confident” people will now register for a vaccine.