Gold Coast Police Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said police who refused the vaccine were expected to be replaced with vaccinated officers at hotels, border and airport check points.

Frontline medical staff, hotel quarantine staff and border workers were among the first 100 people vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine today at Gold Coast University Hospital.

Around 10,000 doses are expected to be administered across the state this week, with mass vaccination centres to be operational across the Gold Coast and other key cities by mid-March.

Wheeler said despite the ongoing COVID-containment role, police would not be ordered to undergo the vaccine. He said police were working through a policy regarding police who refused the jab.

“It’s not compulsory. We are absolutely encouraging all of our staff to take up the offer of a vaccine,” Wheeler said

“In the past we have done redeployments. We had a policy around the wearing of beards, people who weren’t prepared to shave their beards so they could get a good seal with masks, they were redeployed.

“So we’ll work through it. It will be a common sense approach.”

With 36 Victorian local government areas still declared hotspots, police continue to impose border restrictions and enforce hotel quarantine.

“Fortunately our staff so far have been unscathed. The reassurance of having a vaccine will be a weight off all of our minds,” Wheeler told ABC Gold Coast.

“But it is such a risky environment virtue of where those people are coming from.”

This month alone police have had over 26,000 applications through the border pass declaration system and have checked passengers coming in on 11,409 domestic flights.

About 190 people coming from hotspots have been refused entry to Queensland.