The number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 in Orange should be made public.
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That's the view of Orange City councillor Jeff Whitton who says once the figure rises it can be used by council as a positive push to encourage tourists back to the city when lockdowns end.
Cr Whitton said he would raise the matter at council's next meeting on Tuesday night ahead of a formal motion at the council's following meeting next month.
Currently the federal health department reveals daily vaccination figures on a state by state basis.
It also revealed earlier this month 40.4 per cent of people in the Central West over 15 had received at one dose of vaccine with 16.7 per cent fully vaccinated.
Western NSW Local Health District chief executive Scott McLachlan this week said about 28,000 people in the LHD had been vaccinated.
However Cr Whitton said the figures should dig deeper and provide figures for Orange.
He said he was "getting a lot of feedback" about people being keen to get vaccinated and wanting to know the figures.
Cr Whitton said once a high target was reached the figure could be used to show Orange was safe to visit.
"I think it would really help to promote awareness. You would use it as a positive story," he said.
"Get on the front foot and say 'we're taking this seriously."
Cr Whitton said during the recent lockdown Orange residents had acted responsibly and followed the health rules.
"When we had our own lockdown the community just dealt with it," he said.
Cr Whitton said he was keen to get the project moving. "I think it is important we start raising it now," he said.
Orange's businesses that rely on tourists have been hit hard in the past six weeks as the Greater Sydney lockdown has stopped people from Sydney, Wollongong and the Central Coast coming to Orange.
With further lockdowns now covering Newcastle and the Hunter region and Canberra, the situation is getting worse.
Mr McLachlan said vaccination hubs in Orange, Bathurst and Dubbo would be receiving more vaccine doses.
"We've seen a significant supply of Pfizer come into Western NSW (on Wednesday), over 5000 doses have come in and well above what we were receiving a couple of weeks ago prior to some of the changes," he said.
"We're pretty excited to be able to scale up our vaccinations right across our region. We will be able to return to the normal bookings that we were taking a couple weeks ago and we are contacting all the people who had their bookings delayed."
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