A doctor has a bottle of BioNTech and Pfizer coronavirus vaccine between his fingers in the pharmacy of Tübingen University Hospital (UKT).
Sebastian Gollnow | alliance image | Getty Images
Australia on Monday approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for use, but warned that AstraZeneca’s international production problems mean the country should distribute a locally manufactured shot earlier than expected.
The country’s medical regulator was one of the first in the world to complete a full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Monday, noting that a year has passed since the first local case was detected. of coronavirus.
Vaccination of priority groups with the Pfizer vaccine is expected to begin in late February at 80,000 doses a week, Health Minister Greg Hunt told ministers.
Pfizer had told the Australian government it planned a continuous supply, but would provide a global production guide “in mid-February for March and beyond on a weekly basis,” he said.
The update to the Australian release comes after AstraZeneca told EU officials on Friday it would reduce its vaccine deliveries to the block by 60% in the first quarter due to production issues.
Hunt said AstraZeneca had warned Australia that the company “has had a major supply shock and therefore means we will not have as much of Astrazeneca International in March as they had previously promised”.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has not yet been approved by Australia, which hopes to start CSL’s internal supply of the AstraZeneca vaccine in March, earlier than expected, at 1 million doses a week, he said.
“The decision to pay a premium for a sovereign, safe and terrestrial vaccine manufacturing capacity through CSL, which puts Australia in a much safer position than almost any other country in the world,” Hunt said.
Australia has set a target of 4 million doses of vaccine in April. It has also pledged to supply vaccines to Pacific Island nations on a later schedule.
The Pfizer vaccine has been provisionally approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for Australians aged 16 and over.
Australia will administer both doses of the vaccine to each recipient at the recommended time.
Quarantine and border staff, front-line health workers and care and disability staff for the elderly and residents will be the first group to receive vaccines.
There have been no new cases of community transmission in Australia in the last seven days and there are no Australians with coronavirus in hospital intensive care units. Hunt contrasted this with six million cases worldwide in the last ten days and 125,000 lives lost.
“This comparison is almost amazing, the difference between where we are in Australia and abroad,” he said.
To ensure that it continues to be so, Australia on Monday suspended its travel bubble with New Zealand for 72 hours and ordered all who had arrived since 14 January to isolate themselves and take the test, after which New Zealand confirmed its first case of COVID-19 to the community in months.
“This will be done with great caution, while more is known about the event and the case,” Hunt told reporters later in the day.
Australia has had just under 28,800 cases in the last year, the overwhelming majority in the state of Victoria and 909 deaths.