Emergency Department associate nurse unit manager Carole Holman received the Pfizer vaccine on Thursday morning at the Warrnambool Base Hospital.

"It's exciting, I feel honoured to be the first one," she said,

"I've been in the emergency department here for over 30 years so I feel quite privileged and very happy to receive it.

"I think it's a step towards returning to some sort of normality in the next few months."

Ms Holman said she received the vaccine not just for herself, but for the community first and foremost.

"Particularly being on the front line I can protect myself while protecting others I'm looking after in emergency but also my own community outside of work in terms of taking it back to family, particularly older family members.

"I also feel like I set a good example that it is a positive thing to do, a safe thing to do and the right thing to do for your community and yourself."

With older sisters in their 70s and her husband's parents well into their 80s and 90s, Ms Homan had felt nervous to visit them in the last 12 months through the pandemic.

"Through that period working in such a frontline area I was nervous I could unknowingly take infection out of the workplace to them.

"It was hard, we had to restrict our visits and when we went, we went with trepidation.

"Now I feel that I'm going to be a lot safer and therefore able to visit more frequently."

Another 329 of her colleagues will be inoculated today.

On Friday, 48 frontline workers at the Camperdown Hospital and Merindah Lodge residential aged care facility will roll up their sleeves for the Pfizer vaccine. So too will all 22 residents at Merindah Lodge.

South West Healthcare chief executive Craig Fraser welcomed the rollout of the vaccine to priority groups and it "won't be long" until the community vaccination program starts.

"This once-in-a-lifetime vaccination campaign will commence in earnest and we hope to see the entire eligible south west community vaccinated in upcoming weeks and months.

"The south west has an amazing vaccination rate for the flu and I'd love the community to treat the COVID vaccination campaign as an extension to the flu campaign.

"The sooner people are COVID-vaccinated, the safer we all will be."

It's anticipated all remaining SWH staff and the local community will be offered the AstraZeneca vaccine later this month, subject to supply.

The community vaccinations will take place at SWH's Vaccination Centre in Warrnambool, based at the old Sam's Warehouse site.

Approximately 40,000 local people are expected to pass through the SWH Vaccination Centre over the next six to twelve months.

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