Meanwhile NSW Health administered 65,258 vaccines to eligible workers and their families,as well as people aged 40 to 49. There werehalf a million shots nationally last week.
Sanjeev Raja,68,was among those who received the AstraZeneca shot at the mass clinic on Monday.
The engineer from Sydney’s inner west said he had friends who had lost loved ones during India’s recent outbreak and felt a duty to receive his vaccine.
“Everybody should take it,” he said,adding that he and his wife,a medical professional,had read up on reported adverse effects and concluded they still wanted to be vaccinated.
There have been 24 cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) among 2.1 million people who have had an AstraZeneca dose in Australia,the Therapeutic Goods Administration reported last week.
Loading
Incidents of the condition prompted vaccine advisory group ATAGI to recommend the Pfizer vaccine be given to Australians aged under 50,resulting in older people receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.
On Sunday,federal Health Minister Greg Hunt told older Australians to not wait to receive their vaccine in the hope of receiving a different brand,despite Australia being set to receive enough mRNA vaccines to vaccinate the entire adult population by Christmas.
Australian Medical Association NSW president and GP Dr Danielle McMullen said the mass clinic would cater for people whose usual GP was not offering the vaccine or had long wait times.
“There are some general practices who still don’t feel they have enough vaccine,and others who are able to order more than they really have the capacity to deliver,” she said.
Australians were reminded community transmission of COVID-19 was an ongoing possibility on Monday,after four family members tested positive to the virus in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.
The group – three adults and a preschool-aged child – live across two households. Their infections prompted venue alerts for a number of locations including a swim school and a shopping centre.
NSW Health said people arriving in Sydney from Greater Melbourne would need to complete a declaration form confirming they had not visited any of the listed venues,as has been required since a case who had recently completed hotel quarantine in Adelaide visited parts of Melbourne earlier this month.
People who have been in the Whittlesea Local Government Area,where the new cases live,should not visit residential aged care facilities or hospitals unless seeking medical attention,the ministry added.
Victorian health authorities said there would be no changes to vaccine eligibility in light of the new cases,as a number of other states move ahead of the national rollout.
Anyone aged 16 and over in regional South Australia will be eligible for a vaccine from Tuesday,an approach that has already been adopted in Alice Springs.
For more than a week,NSW has allowed people in their 40s to register for leftover Pfizer vaccines.
Some others have been vaccinated ahead of their group by taking unwanted doses:people aged under 50 reported successfully receiving AstraZeneca shots by walking into quiet vaccination clinics in Melbourne on the weekend.
Asked about whether that could be possible at Sydney Olympic Park,Ms Berejiklian said the behaviour would not be allowed in NSW,where vaccines must be pre-booked and the focus was on vaccinating priority groups.
“Our strategy in NSW is to reduce risk,and we know that if older people have the virus they’re at greater risk of serious illness or death,” she said.
Get our Coronavirus Update newsletter