Mrs Coyne, who turns 90 on April 14, is one of more than 2,500 residents who have had the first instalment of the vaccination at the centre in the last three weeks.

As part of phase 1b of the national vaccine roll out, Mrs Coyne and her husband Brian received the AstraZeneca shot, which is currently the subject of investigations over apparent links to blood clots.

Patients are told that normal reactions to the injection can include pain, fever and nausea.

The Central Western Daily spoke with three people who had received their first shot.

"It's been pretty good," said Mrs Coyne.

"I hardly felt the needle and everything has just been like normal, no nausea."

Mr and Mrs Coyne are booked to have the second vaccination in about 12 weeks.

Mrs Coyne said she "wasn't really worried" about concerns with the AstraZeneca vaccine.

"I've had so many jabs in my life!" she said.

Mr Coyne is 89 and still tootled about town in his 2010 Peugeot 407, which he described as "my retirement car".

"Come on son, I'm not that old!" he joked.

Asked if he had experienced any side effects, Mr Coyne said: "I did, actually.

"That night it was a cool evening, but prior to going to bed I had my shorty pyjamas on and my face was flushed and red, and I had dry lips."

Mr Coyne said he "went to bed and it was gone by the morning".

He followed the news on the AstraZeneca vaccine but wasn't particularly worried as he had taken aspirin as a blood thinner since having hip replacements, and felt that may give him some protection against clots.

Lee Stuart also had his first vaccination shot at Bloomfield on Wednesday.

"So far, nothing at all - didn't even get a sore arm like you do with the flu needle," said Mr Stuart.

Mr Stuart said he was not overly concerned about having the AstraZeneca vaccination.

"It's pretty low risk - I've got a better chance of winning the lottery and I haven't won that."

His second jab is booked in for late June.

Lauren Rigg from The Wellness House said earlier this week that some staff at the clinic had experienced side effects such as tiredness, fever or nausea, but that they had subsided within a day.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:

Send us a letter to the editor using the form below ...