UPDATE 12 NOON
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Ballarat's Mercure Hotel and Convention centre will open to the public as a community vaccination clinic for COVID vaccinations from Monday.
A Ballarat Health Services spokesperson said the first week of operations would be dedicated to vaccinating phase 1A priority front-line health care workers and Phase 1B critical and high risk workers including emergency services.
From April 19 the clinic will expand to vaccinating other people eligible under priority phase 1B including other health care workers, elderly adults aged 70 and over, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults 55 and over, and adults with an underlying medical condition or significant disability.
The community vaccination centre, which state health minister Martin Foley announced this morning, will only vaccinate people who have made a booking.
It will not take walk-in patients without an appointment.
Bookings are now open for people who fall into priority group 1A and 1B with appointments only able to be made through the Victorian Vaccine Call Centre on 1800 675 398.
When people call, they will be asked a series of screening questions to confirm eligibility and then they will be booked in to receive the vaccine.
BHS hope to provide online bookings in the future.
People can check their phase 1B eligibility here.
Alternative vaccination sites which can be found by on the Commonwealth's eligibility checker and booking system.
EARLIER
Ballarat's Mercure Hotel and Convention Centre is to become a mass COVID-19 vaccination centre as the state government announced a new target to vaccinate 300,000 Victorians by the middle of next month.
State health minister Martin Foley announced this morning that the Mercure Ballarat and Melbourne Showgrounds would be activated in the coming weeks as high-volume vaccination centres.
No start date for the Mercure vaccination centre was set.
The sites join five existing mass vaccination centres across the state plus dozens more hospital vaccination hubs, sub-hubs, and outreach delivery services that have so far vaccinated 129,537 Victorians in the high-priority phase 1A and 1B risk groups.
Earlier this week UFS chief executive Lynne McLennan said recruiting enough qualified staff to man mass vaccination centres would be challenging across the country with the well-known healthcare workforce shortage.
Mr Foley said the goal of 300,000 vaccinations by May 16 was based on projection of vaccine distribution from the Commonwealth Government.
"In late February we started with hospital-based hubs which we have grown over the course of the last seven weeks ... based on the projections the Commonwealth is giving us," Mr Foley said.
"In addition to hospital hubs, sub-hubs, outreach groups, public aged care ... we can now announce further large vaccination distribution hubs one at the Melbourne Showgrounds and one at the Mercure Convention Centre in Ballarat and we will have more to say about this as they establish in the coming days."
The government also announced Victorians living in public housing and included in Phase 1a and 1b will also be able to receive coronavirus vaccinations close to home through dedicated community health centres and mobile 'pop up' clinics.
Ballarat Community Health also this morning opened their booking system for 1A and 1B vaccinations which will be delivered through their clinics at Sebastopol, Wendouree, Lucas, and Smythesdale.
The announcement of new vaccination centres comes on the same day that hotel quarantine resumed in Victoria.
"Victoria's vaccine rollout is time, on target and on track to deliver 300,000 total doses by the middle of May," said acting premier James Merlino.
"We understand the success of the rollout relies on Victorians having confidence in the program. With a clear, articulated and public statement of our aims, we'll ensure Victorians understand exactly how we're tracking."
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