Around 400 people are expected to be vaccinated as part of the phase 1a rollout over the next two days.

READ MORE: First Warrnambool worker receives Pfizer vaccine

A vaccination centre will open in Warrnambool in preparation for the community vaccine rollout.

South West Healthcare will open the centre at the former Sam's Warehouse premises on Merri Street, where around 40,000 local people will be vaccinated in the next 12 months.

READ MORE: Warrnambool COVID-19 vaccination centre to open

So how will it all work locally?

Director of Infection Prevention Dr Mark Page answers all your questions.

Frontline SWH staff most-at-risk of exposure and public aged care residents will be offered the opportunity to have the Pfizer vaccine administered onsite at SWH's Warrnambool Base Hospital, Camperdown Hospital and Merindah Lodge in the next three to four weeks.

All remaining SWH staff and the local community will be offered the opportunity to have, most likely, the AstraZeneca vaccine administered onsite at the COVID Vaccination Centre.

"Barwon Health will be completely overseeing this process," Dr Page said.

"They will be in control of those vaccines coming into South West Healthcare and they'll be working with us to make sure that it's done very safely and also it has to be done in a timely fashion."

The AstraZeneca rollout will be by appointment only.

"It's a booking system, so people coming to the clinic have already been screened for COVID-like symptoms.

"There's very low risk of spread with the amount of people that will be attending.

"It won't be hundreds and hundreds of people at once. They'll be staggered, and discharged in an orderly fashion."

"We're expecting that this will run a minimum of six months, probably 12 months," Dr Page said.

"So, that means that there'll be access for all people in this part of the region.

"We believe there will be other centres in Portland, Hamilton and Colac over time. We're also looking at (rolling out centres) in the outlying towns in Corangamite and Moyne.

"The Warrnambool one will always be here until everyone in our region is vaccinated and hopefully we get to the highest vaccination rates in Australia."

No.

"It's purely up to people. We'll encourage people to get it because this is a very safe and effective treatment, but it's ultimately up to people to decide whether they would like to have it or not," Dr Page said.

"What we want to make sure is that the vaccine is available for anyone at any point in time."

No.

"I think vaccine technology has come so far - the fact that we've been able to get a vaccine within 12 months really of this virus coming out is amazing," Dr Page said.

"There was some full work done on the SARS virus 17 years ago, and another virus which is closely related called MERS-CoV.

"So there was vaccination work already in place which looked at the spike protein and how it actually enabled the virus to get into human cells.

"That vaccine work came before COVID so that enabled them to really get a leg up in terms of being on top of the vaccine quickly.

"Because we now have molecular techniques that we didn't have years ago with vaccines, these vaccines are as fine tuned as any vaccine that we've had.

"Years ago vaccines had to be a little broader and sometimes are associated with live virus - there's none of that with these vaccines. They are purely molecular with no live COVID virus.

"They're very specifically targeted to get the right immune response so that they can protect people from COVID.

"It's a real advantage we've got all these technology to be able to get vaccine so quickly.

"There's a lot of questions and concerns about the vaccine but in general we're fortunate in that there's been a lot of experience already overseas with the vaccines that we're going to have.

"Millions of people have already received them so the message we're getting in and the signalling coming through from overseas, is that the vaccines are safe.

"They seem to be very effective in preventing severe COVID-19 and COVID-related death, and the reactions to the vaccine in terms of allergy profile or local reactions are very mild and severe allergic reactions are very rare.

"So it's really looking positive for us to have an effective vaccine against this virus a lot sooner than we might have expected."

Yes.

"There's no-one in the community that we're aware of in terms of large groups who can't have the vaccine," Dr Page said.

"There are some groups that aren't as well studied as others in terms of people under the age of 18 and pregnant people, but for instance people with comorbidities - so illnesses - they are the people who are most likely to benefit from the vaccine, because they tend to get COVID and get sicker.

"The only groups that we would have any concern with vaccine allergy is people who've got a very significant allergy history and lots of things, it's not a large number of those people, but they will be supervised differently at clinics.

"But that's the only group that is showing any concern, and they have concern with every medication and vaccine that they would get.

"Greatly we're seeing this vaccine is going to be able to be given to lots of people."

"There was an active public health intervention which everyone was part of which helped us stay relatively COVID-free," Dr Page said.

"The public's already taken on board mask wearing, social distancing, following public health rules and I would expect them to get onto the vaccine for the next public health measure.

"Not only protect them but to protect their family, individuals and older relatives.

"Young people may think, 'well if I get COVID I might not get that sick', which is generally correct, but if you've got a grandmother or elderly relative you might be asymptomatically COVID and pass it to them and then they have a life-threatening illness.

"I think people will see it in that general context. Warrnambool and south-west people in general are pretty community-minded so I would expect, like with other vaccines, we're going to have a really good rollout."

"We're not quite sure, what we've seen is people even after the first vaccine are already showing protective immunity to a degree in increments as time goes on.

"The vaccine is probably going to take weeks to months after that second dose.

"What we don't know is how long does that effect last - a lot of vaccines if you test for their immune reaction after you've given it there's a natural waning, but when you've been exposed or when you're re-exposed, the actual response on re-exposure is enormous.

"They're things that we're going to learn about the vaccine. At the moment we think it's going to provide medium to long-term efficacy in terms of protection, but whether we'll need boosters and whether if there is significant strain variation we'll need boosting doses down the track like we do with flu vaccine - we'll see.

"We're seeing weeks to month in terms of peak effect, but effect right from really when you've had the first dose."

Yes but not all GPs will be offering the service.

"The requirements around the vaccination is quite a bit involved so for a GP clinic to set up they're going to have to put a lot of infrastructure in place - a doctor on site, booking system linking into the Commonwealth immunisation registry, being able to supervise people 15 minutes to half an hour afterwards - that's quite a lot for a GP practice to do.

"Some practices are interested in doing it and there are other centres, but that was part of the reason South West Healthcare felt the vaccination centre was really important so that we wouldn't have any chance that people won't get the vaccine because of lack of access."

"Both of them have basically a template for the spike protein which is part of COVID, but the mRNA vaccine which is Pfizer requires different storage and transport needs.

"Whereas the Astra is more like a normal vaccine that can be given and transported in a standard fashion."

Learn about the health, social and economic benefits of being vaccinated for COVID-19 here.

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