Mass vaccination hub at Sydney Olympic Park opens on Monday

NSW has recorded no new local COVID cases on Sunday however restrictions will be extended for a week - with one amendment. Meanwhile, the city’s mass vaccination hub will open its doors on Monday.

Sydneysiders will be subjected to COVID restrictions — including a ban on dancing and drinking while standing — for another week despite no new local cases being recorded on Sunday.

The COVID restrictions due to lift at midnight will be extended until next Monday, but one change has been made removing a requirement for customers to wear masks at retail stores.

It comes as the source of an infection in an Eastern Suburbs man last week remains a mystery.

The extended COVID restrictions will be changed, removing a requirement for people to wear masks in retail stores.

Drinking while standing remains banned, as does dancing. Singing by audiences and congregants at places of worship is also not allowed.

Household gatherings are limited to 20 visitors. Masks are still compulsory on public transport.

The restrictions will be extended until 12.01am next Monday.

There were 18,024 tests processed in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday.

Opening up to international travel

Australia’s “simple goal” is to keep people safe from COVID-19 and “progressively open as quickly as we can” to the rest of the world, says Health Minister Greg Hunt.

Potential extension of “green lane” travel like the current New Zealand bubble, as well as allowing people who have been fully vaccinated to be able to come and go “on a faster basis” than the 14-day hotel quarantine system are all potential options, Mr Hunt said.

“The roadmap is about progressive opening of the borders, and it’s really built around the three principles of green lanes and opening up new bubbles with different safe countries, as we’ve done with New Zealand and as will do with others in the Pacific and within the region as they become progressively safer,” he said.

“We’ll judge those on the basis of medical advice.”

Mr Hunt said the second part of the roadmap to reopening was dependent on the domestic vaccine rollout, with this week already on track to be a “record” number of jabs administered.

“The third element is ... the capacity for greater travel for those who have been vaccinated,” he said.

Mr Hunt said enabling fully vaccinated Australians to travel would be determined by how successful the vaccines are at stopping the transmission of COVID-19.

“We’ve had the largest global mass vaccination program on history, and every day we’re learning about the prevention of serious illness hospitalization and death and those results are extraordinary and global,” he said.

“At the same time, we’re learning that there is a very strong impact on transmission but not a universal impact.

“We know that in the United States, the Center for Disease Control has already provided information that those who have been fully vaccinated. In some circumstances have been contracting (the virus).”

Mr Hunt said as soon as there was more information about the impact on transmission the government would share how it impacted health advice.

“But more Australians will be able to travel earlier,” he said.

“And it is ... likely that they’ll be able to return with less restrictions, where they have been vaccinated.”

Mr Hunt said in a global environment where there were 800,000 cases a day, including more than 50 countries reporting more than 1,000 daily infections, Australia was arguably one of the “safest” places in the world.

City vax hub to jab 30,000 a week

The long-awaited mass vaccination hub will open its doors at Sydney Olympic Park from Monday, in a move that aims to double the number of jabs administered in NSW to almost 60,000 a week.

Operating six days a week from 8am to 8pm, the state government clinic will be staffed by about 300 staff — two-thirds of them registered nurses and midwives — who will have the capacity to administer up to 30,000 vaccines per week.

A first look inside the mass vaccination centre at Sydney Olympic Park as staff underwent final training before it opens on Monday morning.

The challenge for the government will be to woo the public amid ongoing hesitancy about vaccinations.

Staff who will work at the hub went through a training run on Friday, with pictures taken from inside showing rows of nursing ­stations along with large waiting areas facing ceiling-mounted screens.

The screens will list ticket numbers which will be called out when staff are ready for their next recipient.

The mass vaccination clinic will complement more than 100 vaccination centres and outreach clinics opened by NSW Health across the state.

The addition of the Homebush hub will dramatically boost the number of vaccinations able to be administered in the state, with NSW Health estimating the total figure to be around 60,000 per week.

Staff give the system a run-through.

The hub will administer vaccines to those in Phase 1a and 1b groups, which ­include frontline healthcare workers and the elderly, before opening up to over-50s on May 24.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the clinic’s opening represented a significant step forward for the state’s vaccination program.

He urged people to take advantage of the city clinic and come forward to be vaccinated.

“It is critical that everyone gets vaccinated against COVID-19,” Mr Hazzard.

“Tomorrow will be a great day for the people of NSW and a big step forward for our vaccination rollout.

“This is a great location, particularly due to its accessibility, as it’s within 25km of all major population centres in the Sydney metropolitan area, has ample parking and is just a short walk from a train station.

The hub will be open six days a week from 8am to 8pm.

The vaccine rollout is being managed by NSW Health deputy secretary Susan Pearce, who is also the State Health Emergency Operations Centre Controller.

Ms Pearce said the centre would be administering both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. “This centre is a wonderful and very significant addition to the many vaccination clinics we have established throughout NSW since 22 February,” she said.

“It will provide a very efficient and pleasant experience for all those who ­receive their vaccination here.”

The clinic is located at 1 Figtree Dr, Sydney Olympic Park, where hundreds of Sydney Local Health District pharmacy, security, workforce, communications, nursing, medicine, allied health and education staff have been working over the past few weeks ahead of its ­opening.