Australia on track to offer every eligible person a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021

The National Cabinet met today to discuss Australia’s COVID-19 response to the Australian COVID-19 Vaccine Strategy.

It is reported that leaders expressed support at the decision to bring in the Australian Defence Force to help speed up the rollout, and also called on the Commonwealth to get more GPs and pharmacists involved in the programme so as to deliver more jabs when supply is ramped up.

The updated advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) was noted about the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and the changes to the vaccination program. According to this advice, Pfizer vaccine is recommended for adults under the age of 60 and that people aged 50-59 can now book for the Pfizer vaccine.

COVID-19 Taskforce Commander Lieutenant General John Frewen, coordinator of the operation COVID Shield, said “we are still in a resource-constrained environment we need to carefully manage. But on current forecasts, we are looking forward to ramp up availability of Pfizer through August into September and into October.”

There have been 30,356 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia and, 910 people deaths. More than 19.7 million tests have been undertaken in the country.

Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine roll out continues to expand. To date 6,590,741 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Australia, including 34,712 in the previous 24 hours. In the previous 7 days, more than 723,442 vaccines have been administered in Australia. To date 26.7 per cent of the Australian adult population have now had a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, including over 65.2 per cent of over 70 year olds.

National Cabinet agreed on the imperative to work together to administer COVID-19 vaccinations to Australians as quickly as possible.

National Cabinet noted that the Commonwealth is fast tracking plans to expand the number of access points for Pfizer. By the end of July, all 136 Commonwealth Vaccination Clinics, 40 ACCHS and 1,300 GPs will be administering Pfizer. Many more primary care providers will be offered the chance to administer mRNA vaccines as the supply of Pfizer significantly increases and the first supplies of Moderna arrive in September/October.

Australia remains on-track to offer every eligible person in Australia a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021, according to the Coordinator General.