Flight attendant may be first Australian to have coronavirus vaccine

A flight attendant quarantined in a Sydney hotel room may be the first Australian to be immune from coronavirus.

Rochelle Crossley has been working as a flight attendant in the UAE and received a COVID-19 vaccination after thousands of injections were rolled out to frontline workers.

"The fear of getting the virus outweighed the fear of having the vaccination," Ms Crossley told 9News.

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"Everyone has different side effects but mainly a sore arm. I had a bit of a cough after the first vaccine but the second one I didn't have anything."

The vaccine has been developed by Chinese owned manufacturer Sinopharm.

More than 30,000 people in the UAE have received injections as part of phase three trials.

Rochelle arrived at Sydney airport last week with her vaccination paperwork, much to the bewilderment of Australian health officials.

"They looked at me like I was the one making a mistake. They said you know there is no vaccine", she said.

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The mother-of-two was initially put into a health hotel before being transferred into normal quarantine to join her family.

Dr Robert Grenfell from the CSIRO said the Sinopharm vaccine is one of five vaccines currently in the final stages of testing.

But even when it's proven successful, it doesn't mean the virus can't still be transmitted.

"Just because you've had the vaccine at this stage doesn't mean that you can't still have the virus either in your nose or on your hands and spread it," Dr Grenfell told 9News.

Australia is on track to have access to a COVID vaccine by next year after signing a deal with Pfizer for 10 million doses.