Some cancelled Pfizer jabs at Belmont Vaccination Hub have still not been reinstated, despite government promises that they would be.
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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian cancelled the Pfizer bookings to give to HSC students in COVID hotspots in Sydney.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison stepped in five days later to announce 185,000 doses would be sent to NSW over the next fortnight, partly to compensate for the loss of 40,000 Pfizer vaccines from the regions.
The extra doses were due to arrive on Monday this week and next week.
While some bookings at the Belmont hub have been reinstated, others haven't.
Hunter New England Health COVID-19 response lead Elizabeth Grist said "we have started rebooking and vaccinating all the Pfizer appointments that had been cancelled".
Ms Grist said 63 per cent of those appointments "have already rebooked their appointments".
"There are enough Pfizer doses for everyone who was cancelled, so we encourage everyone who was cancelled to rebook," she said.
"All of the available priority spots this week are filled, and we have sufficient booking spaces available from now until August 29 for those who were cancelled. We are expecting more Pfizer to arrive mid-October."
Adamstown's Mark Creek has type 2 diabetes and epilepsy. He qualifies under phase 1b of the vaccine rollout. He is also a frontline worker at a Coles Express service station.
He was due to get the Pfizer vaccine at Belmont last week.
"I feel robbed, I suppose," Mr Creek said.
"I emailed straight away when it got cancelled. They said they'd get back in 48 hours. It took them nearly a week to get back to me. They've noted my conditions and said they'll put me on the list," he said.
With COVID-19 now spreading in the Hunter, he is concerned that he has not received a priority code to rebook his Pfizer jabs.
What makes things worse for Mr Creek is that some people - who weren't in priority groups for vaccination - did not have their Pfizer bookings cancelled at the Belmont hub. They were able to be vaccinated over the past 10 days.
Mr Creek said it seemed like health authorities "just cancelled people willy-nilly".
This is despite those authorities stating that the bookings of priority groups and those waiting for second shots were "unintentionally" cancelled.
These cases were to receive a priority code within a week for rebooking "when more supplies become available".
Mr Creek's wife Shirley did receive a priority code to rebook. She is also part of phase 1b due to being treated for cancer.
The family is also facing the fear of being exposed to COVID.
"My daughter Kimberley was at Warners Bay Subway when it was an exposure site," Mr Creek said, adding that she had bought a sandwich there.
Kimberley was considered a close contact and is self-isolating for 14 days in their house. The family's five members have all tested negative.
Mr Creek said his wife asked the Belmont hub about his bookings being reinstated.
"They had no idea when I would get a code to rebook mine. It could take up to a couple of weeks to get a code," he said.
"There was nothing in the system to say when, even though I was supposed to be in the 1b category and classed as an essential worker."
Shadow Minister for the Hunter Yasmin Catley said she was continually hearing Ms Berejiklian urge people at her daily press conferences to "get vaccinated".
"I've still got people who had vaccination bookings cancelled, who still haven't got a code to get back on the vaccination list," she said.
"It's wrong. They're sending us mixed messages."
Ms Catley said it was disappointing that the NSW government did not seem prepared for the outbreak that citizens are now living through.
"Last year when we were in lockdown for five weeks, it was to prepare us for the worst," Ms Catley said.
"By sheer luck and people's diligence, we've escaped what could be considered the worst until now.
"Turns out, though, we're not prepared. It's really disappointing."
Some residents have been increasingly concerned with the Premier's comments that some lockdown restrictions may ease, as vaccination rates reach targets of 50, 60, 70 and 80 per cent.
The concern is that Sydney residents will reach these vaccination rates, but Hunter residents won't have had the same chance to reach those levels due to a lack of vaccine supply.
As restrictions ease, the virus could spread further in the Hunter, leaving many residents as sitting ducks.
The Premier was questioned on the vaccine targets at her daily press conference on Wednesday.
"If you want significant freedoms, you need 70 per cent of the population fully vaccinated," she said.
She added that if NSW had high rates of vaccination by September and October, along with lower rates of COVID, some freedoms from lockdown could be granted.
"People will be able to do more than what they are today," she said.
She said when NSW hits the 70 per cent vaccination rate, society could "start living like we used to".
Once rates hit 80 per cent, the government would "no longer focus on cases, but the number of hospitalisations".
The focus, then, would be on "keeping people out of hospital". At this point, the government could transition to "treating COVID like the flu".
NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant told the COVID-19 oversight committee on Tuesday that it was "too premature" to ease restrictions. She had not provided specific advice to the government about what restrictions could be eased when the 50 per cent vaccination rate was reached.
At Wednesday's press conference, Ms Berejiklian wasn't backing entirely away from allowing some freedoms at the 50 per cent vaccination mark.
She had previously mentioned the return of people to workplaces and face-to-face schooling as priorities for eased restrictions. She said areas in Greater Sydney with low cases and high vaccination rates could have some restrictions eased before the 70 per cent target was reached.
She added that the vaccination target rates were "incentives".
"Those incentives work," she said.
Also at the press conference, Dr Chant wasn't ruling out changes to restrictions at the 50 per cent mark either.
She said COVID was "differentially spread" and the risk profile was "different in some areas".
Nevertheless, she said the spread of COVID can "change rapidly".
Meanwhile, federal member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon told journalists in Canberra on Wednesday that the Prime Minister had "promised that those people working on the frontline would be vaccinated by Easter".
"Well, Prime Minister, we're now in August. It is unforgivable that you have broken that promise to our essential workers in aged care," Ms Claydon said.
"If ever you needed proof positive of the human cost of errors being made by politicians when it comes to messaging on COVID-19, you need only look to what is happening in the regions today," Ms Claydon said.
"It is the failure of the Morrison government to in fact show any form of national leadership or take responsibility for ensuring the safety of people in our regions, that we are seeing outbreaks in two aged-care facilities in my region of Newcastle.
"Why are those outbreaks occurring? It's quite simple. The aged-care workers have not been fully vaccinated."
"I had one aged-care facility which, in order to have their staff vaccinated, had to get a bus and take everybody to Sydney to be vaccinated. That was before the lockdown."
