The Port Kembla steelworks may well be the first business in the country to offer in-house COVID vaccinations.
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For three days from Thursday, employees who had booked in will get their first Pfizer jab at BlueScope's North Gate visitors' centre.
BlueScope's Health and Wellbeing Manager Stephanie O'Dwyer said the federal government program piggybacked on the knowledge the in-house medical team developed following a flu vaccination run earlier this year.
"Our nurses on the Port Kembla site had already been trained with the immunisation qualifications so we trained them up as well with the COVID vaccination requirements as COVID continued to unfold," Ms O'Dwyer said.
"Then the opportunity arose to participate in a pilot with the government so it was all systems go."
Two weeks after they got the final approval BlueScope nurses were giving their first COVID shots on Thursday.
Ms O'Dwyer said the government had told BlueScope they were the first private business in the country to offer in-house vaccinations.
We would love to get our hands on more vaccines because we've got lots more demand.
- BlueScope Health and Wellbeing Manager Stephanie O'Dywer
The in-house clinic eased the pressure on the public health system, she said, because the medical staff were already employed by BlueScope; all that was needed were the vaccines.
The program was open to employees, contractors and their families and was limited to the 300 doses supplied as part of the pilot.
Participation was voluntary as the steelmaker has not made vaccination mandatory.
Also those workers who were on shift at the time were able to leave to go and get their vaccination.
The vaccinations were allocated via an online booking system set up two days earlier. Ms O'Dwyer said the take-up rate was fast - in just 32 minutes all 300 spots were taken.
"This is only a pilot - we would love to get our hands on more vaccines because we've got lots more demand," she said.
"But so far we've managed to get 300 so people who have missed out will have to go to the vaccination hub."
The 300 first doses covered around 10 per cent of the employees on the Port Kembla site, but Ms O'Dwyer said anecdotal evidence suggested the overall rate of at least first-dose vaccination was around 65 per cent.
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
