Looks like we could be getting the COVID-19 vaccine as early as February
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07.01.2021

Looks like we could be getting the COVID-19 vaccine as early as February

The delivery of the vaccine is set to be brought forward a month.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced the rollout of Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine is set to be brought forward a month, with the first jabs to be given in mid-to-late-February if everything goes to plan.

As part of the hastened scheme, the first groups to receive the inoculation include frontline health workers, workers handling international arrivals and quarantine, aged care and disability workers and those living within aged care or with a disability.

While Morrison affirmed his optimism that the scheme would roll out on time, it’s only a “target”.

“We anticipate, optimistically, that we would hope to start the vaccination with 80,000 people a week,” he said during a press conference in Canberra.

“This will of course remain conditional on a number of important factors, most importantly that final [Therapeutic Goods Administration] approval and the delivery of the vaccine from our suppliers.”

Morrison announced that as part of the federal government’s adjusted goals, they hope to have vaccinated four million people by the end of March.

We can expect the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine first up with the Oxford AstraZeneca jab to follow. The government has purchased ten million doses of Pfizer, and secured 54 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with 50 million of those to be produced onshore.

Australians will require two doses of these vaccines, taken a month between each other. It must also be stored and transported at -70 degrees Celsius, meaning the government has a task on their hands to sustain its efficacy.

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