Australia approves Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine; inoculations to begin in late Feb

On Monday, Australia approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use, with the first jabs set for late next month. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced it on Twitter and said that this is an important step in our fight against this terrible virus. The country's medical regulator was one of the first in the world to complete an extensive approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, he added.

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While addressing media, Health Minister Greg Hunt said, with 80 thousand doses per week, vaccination of priority groups with the Pfizer vaccine is expected to begin in late February. The first group to receive vaccines will be the border personnel, frontline health workers and aged care and disability staff and residents.

The vaccine has got an approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration in terms of strict standards safety, quality and efficacy. The administration also gave provisional approval for people aged 16 and over to use the vaccine. At least two doses will be required in the gap of 21 days. Australia has set a target of 4 million vaccine doses by April.

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Australia's Early Vaccination Rollout

On January 6, Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt announced that the coronavirus vaccine rollout will begin weeks earlier than expected. The vaccine rollout is expected to take place in early March. The government has aimed to vaccinate all the Australian citizens by October 2021. 

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Vaccine situation in Australia 

Earlier, the Australian government agreed to purchase two more COVID-19 vaccines, increasing the count to 135 million doses in total to combat the COVID-19 infection. The Australian government signed an agreement for $1.7bn AUD ($1.24 bn USD) for early 85 million doses from AstraZeneca by January 2021. They also procured an additional 40 million vaccine doses from Novavax, and 10 million from Pfizer and BioNTech. According to a release by BioPharma, Scott Morrison’s government has pledged free COVID-19 vaccines across Australia if trials for the experimental candidate by the University of Queensland are successful.

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