SA GPs to get boost in AstraZeneca vaccine supplies

GP practices will get extra supplies of the AstraZeneca vaccine as local production increases.

Hundreds of GP practices will have their AstraZeneca vaccine supplies doubled or tripled as the federal government seeks to ramp up the vaccination program and production increases in Melbourne.

Many GP practices were initially allocated as few as 50 doses per week, sparking anger from people trying to book in when told there were limited places. Other practices have been receiving up to 400 doses a week.

GPs have been advised by federal health officials that practices receiving 50 doses a week will be allocated 150 and those receiving 100 doses will start receiving 200.

The increase comes into effect immediately.

It comes as GPs can now vaccinate people aged 50 and up, while the preference is for people aged below 50 to have the Pfizer vaccine due to the rare instances of blood clots associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine in the younger age group.

While hospitals and aged care homes have been used to vaccinate frontline health, quarantine workers and aged care residents, and now mass hubs are opening for some workers, GPs are spearheading the broader community vaccination plan.

Their close relationship with many patients, ability to explain the risks, understanding of pre-existing health conditions and geographical spread puts them at the forefront of the national vaccine plan.

Royal Australian College of GPs president Dr Karen Price, commenting on the association’s website, welcomed the news as a positive step forward, saying “many general practices across Australia are crying out for more COVID-19 vaccine doses.”

President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Dr Karen Price.

She noted it recognises the important role of general practice in the vaccine rollout and the fact that general practice already acts as a ready-made mass vaccination program.

Manufacturer CSL has confirmed production of the AstraZeneca vaccine for Australia has reached more than a million doses a week and says these volumes have been produced for several weeks and are due to be released into the community from mid-to-late May following quality checks.

More than 3.7 million doses already have been released from CSL and Seqirus’ Australian manufacturing facilities.

“To ensure the vaccines meet the required quality standards there is approximately a four week quality control and approval process from the time vials are filled, involving a series of stringent tests conducted on each batch and undertaken by CSL, AstraZeneca and the TGA,” a company statement said.

“Manufacturing any biological product at industrial scale involves a high degree of finetuning to achieve optimal levels of production. The teams at CSL Behring and Seqirus have been working to improve processes and increase output, and we are pleased to now be delivering targeted volumes.”

CSL notes there are a number of “inherent variables in production of biological products” and because of this the number of doses from each batch will continue to vary which is normal.

SA recorded two new COVID cases today – a woman in her 20s and teenage both from overseas and in medi-hotels – for a total of 735 with 29 active cases.