Victorians face lengthy waits for coronavirus jabs as outbreak grows

Thousands of Victorians who are eager to roll up their sleeves for the coronavirus vaccine are waiting for hours in icy temperatures.

Wait times are blowing out at vaccination clinics. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Matray

Thousands of Victorians who are eager to get the coronavirus vaccine face lengthy delays in frosty weather as the state battles another outbreak.

Walk-ins had to be suspended at the Sunshine Hospital in Melbourne’s west after wait times blew out to as much as five hours on Sunday morning.

Wait times for a vaccines at the Northern Hospital in Epping are at more than three hours while at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre queues are about two hours long, according to the state’s health department website.

Long queues at Royal Exhibition Building vaccination hub as people wait for the jab on Saturday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Matray

There is “no delay” at Carlton’s Royal Exhibition Centre, according to the site.

The state’s testing commander Jeroen Weimar urged people to check the Victorian coronavirus website about wait times before they head to a vaccination site and book ahead if possible.

“We saw a significant reduction in the queues yesterday afternoon … I would encourage people to keep eye on those queues during the course of the day,” Mr Weimar said on Sunday afternoon.

“We are starting to see a little bit of easing off at the back of the day so that may be a good time to get vaccinated,” he said.

People waiting at the Royal Exhibition Building vaccination hub at Carlton Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Matray

For those in the city’s southeast the wait time has jumped to three hours at Sandown Racecourse in Springvale.

In regional centres Shepparton wait times for jabs are around one hour and 30 minutes, in Ballarat it’s about two hours and at Bendigo it’s 30 minutes.

It comes as the state recorded another five cases, and more than 4000 primary close contacts were identified.

Up to 70 per cent returned a negative coronavirus test result.