COVID-19: TGA makes it easier to move Pfizer jab in Australia as NZ worker tests positive
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has agreed to make it easier to store and transport the Pfizer vaccine in Australia.
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The Therapeutic Goods Administration has agreed to make it easier to store and transport the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Australia – as health experts around the countries decide the future of the embattled AstraZeneca jab.
The TGA has today approved the storage and transportation of unopened vials of the vaccine at domestic freezer temperature levels of -25 degrees to -15 degrees Celsius for up to two weeks.
This marks a major improvement in the logistics of managing the vaccine which was previously required to be stored at “ultra-cold” temperatures.
A temperature between -90 degrees and -60 degrees Celsius will still be required for longer term storage.
“Vials stored or transported in this manner can also be returned to ultra-cold longer-term storage within the original shelf life of the product,” a statement read.
The TGA added that unopened vials can also be stored for up to five days at domestic refrigerator levels between 2 degrees and 8 degrees Celsius.
“Within this five-day period, up to 12 hours may be used for transportation,” the TGA advised.
“But the time used for transport of unopened vials at refrigerator temperatures counts against the five day limit for storage at 2°C to 8°C.”
The vaccine cannot be re-frozen once it has been thawed.
The TGA added that the vaccine is diluted with saline prior to administration and the diluted vaccine can be stored or transported at room temperatures of up to 30 degrees for up to six hours.
AUCKLAND BORDER WORKER GETS COVID
A young border worker in Auckland has tested positive to COVID, sparking concerns the case could derail the recently announced travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand.
The 24-year-old man works at the Grand Millennium in Auckland and comes after 23 new Covid cases were found in MIQ facilities today.
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the man had a sore throat four days ago. He has not been vaccinated.
The person lives alone but Auckland Regional Public Health is investigating contacts with the man’s neighbours.
He travels to work with a colleague, who is being tested. The colleague has been fully vaccinated.
The man worked at Easter, but was not at work or in contact with anyone yesterday.
Bloomfield said officials are still working to determine the exposure of the security guard’s colleagues and community contacts.
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern has announced a temporary suspension of travel from India into New Zealand, coming into effect from April 11-28, and it will apply to New Zealand citizens.
Ms Ardern said more than 80 per cent of border workers had now been vaccinated.
Those who are not vaccinated were set to be moved into other roles and would not in a Covid high-risk job.
Her expectation was that all the country’s frontline border workers had to be vaccinated.
The Government allowed time for those who didn’t wish to be vaccinated to consider their options and seek more information.
However, from Monday those who still did not wish to be vaccinated would now need to move to other roles.
Health Minister Greg Hunt played down fears on Thursday, describing New Zealand as a “global exemplar” in containing outbreaks and confirming the advice remained unchanged.
“New Zealand has an outstanding record … We have confidence as a government in the New Zealand government’s approach,” he said.
“But we have full independence and authority, which we provided to the chief medical officer, to provide frank and fearless recommendations. So where we’ve had to take steps, we have.”
Mr Hunt said Australia and New Zealand boasted two of the strongest hotel quarantine systems in the world, but no measures could completely eradicate the threat of COVID-19.
“The first ring of containment … is the quarantine program,” he said.
“(But) even the best in the world is not an immunity bubble. There will be additional leakage from that, whether it’s a breath, a touch, whether it’s a surface.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said earlier he did not have any advice on the case and did not comment on whether the travel bubble plan would be derailed.
CMO BACKS ASTRA JAB AS ELDERLY WOMAN DIES
Australia’s Chief Medical Officer has said there is no apparent causal link between the death of an elderly Queensland woman, and the COVID-19 vaccination she received hours earlier.
The 82-year-old, who had been living at the Blue Care Yurana aged care facility in Springwood, south of Brisbane, received her jab about 10am on Wednesday. Police were called to the home about 1.30pm.
Her death has been classed as non-suspicious and police will prepare a report for the coroner. CMO Professor Paul Kelly said while the death would be investigated, there did not appear to be a link between her death and the vaccine.
“Sadly more than 1000 people pass in aged care every week. It is inevitable, as the head of the TGA has noted, that this will include people who have been recently vaccinated,” Professor Kelly said.
“Any event that happens following vaccination is fully investigated.
“The medical experts and the TGA will review the specifics of such cases and reach a conclusion based on the facts.”
The woman is said to have suffered from a number of underlying health conditions, including lung disease, as has been reported by the Courier Mail.
Professor Kelly said the TGA was monitoring COVID-19 vaccination in elderly patients “across the world.”
“It can be expected that older and more frail people in an aged care setting may pass away due to progression of underlying disease or natural causes, this does not mean the vaccine has contributed to this,” he said.
“The TGA will continue to monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccines as they are rolled out in Australia and internationally.”
He also said the AstraZeneca jab was “very safe” despite reports from the UK today that there is a link to rare blood clotting events and under-30s would not be given the vaccine anymore.
In January, the TGA investigated 30 deaths among the elderly population in Norway who had received the Pfizer vaccine.
At the time, the European Medicines Agency found no causal link between the vaccination and the deaths, and the TGA found no risk of vaccinating elderly patients with the Pfizer jab.
Both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines being rolled out across Australia can cause minor side effects, including fever, muscle pain and fatigue, but have been declared safe.
It comes as the EMA has found a possible link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and rare cases of blood clots in some patients.
The Federal Government was expected to deliver 10,500 vaccines to 150 aged care facilities across Queensland this week.
HUNT SAYS MORE VACCINE DOSES ON WAY
Health Minister Greg Hunt says Australia should receive an additional 1.6 million vaccines within the next three weeks, bringing the total to 2.9 million doses.
“We’ve received the 1.3 million that have been cleared and we’re expecting later this week over 470,000, early next week 480,000, and then late next week or early the following week 670,000,” Mr Hunt told reporters in Melbourne.
Mr Hunt said the arrival date for the batches may change as they are still subject to safety protocols and assessments.
It comes after the nation’s top health official revealed Australia does not have answers on whether the AstraZeneca vaccine causes blood clots but the advice remains to push ahead with its vaccine rollout,
The Australian Technical Advisory Group (ATAGI) has recommended Australians continue to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine despite concerns it may be linked to rare clotting events reported globally.
It comes as the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) investigated one case possibly linked to the vaccine, which will make up the bulk of Australia’s rollout.
Department of Health secretary Professor Brendan Murphy said local authorities were in touch with Europe and UK regulators about potential issues with AstraZeneca overseas.
His comments came as a trial of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in British children was paused while regulators investigate possible links to rare blood clots in adults.
There was also confusion over whether the European Medicines Agency (EMA) had found a link between the vaccine and the clots, which have been associated with the deaths of seven vaccinated people in Britain.
“We are very closely (working) with our counterparts in the UK … and in Europe … to look at the data they’re getting,” Professor Murphy said in Canberra today.
He said it was unclear “whether it’s a real problem and whether it has any significance”.
“We are taking this matter very seriously at the moment,” he said, adding that the AstraZeneca vaccine would continue to be given in Australia despite concerns overseas.
It came as the Morrison government as put the European Commission on notice over the supply of millions of internationally manufactured vaccine doses.
A war of words erupted overnight after the commission – the European Union’s executive branch – rejected claims it blocked 3.1 million AstraZeneca doses from being sent to Australia.
The commissions’s chief spokesman, Eric Mamer, said he could not confirm any new decision to block vaccine exports.
But Prime Minister Scott Morrison said 3.1 million doses had not come to Australia in January and February as per its contract with AstraZeneca.
“That is just a simple fact,” Mr Morrison said in Canberra.
The federal government argues that not responding to requests for vaccines or asking Australia to withdraw applications was the same as blocking them.
Australia pre-purchased 3.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from overseas supplies.
The government revealed only 700,000 had been delivered to date because the EU had not given AstraZeneca an export licence.
The vaccine manufacturer in February made an application for 500,000 doses being manufactured in Italy.
However, AstraZeneca was advised by the European Commission to withdraw their application and resubmit a revised application for 250,000 doses.
COVID VICTIM NAMED
The man who died in a Brisbane hospital from COVID-19 complications has been revealed as Mal Kela Smith, a respected former governor and businessman from Papua New Guinea.
PNG Health Minister Jelta Wong confirmed that Mr Smith, 77, a former governor of the Eastern Highlands, had passed away in the Redcliffe hospital on Monday after he was evacuated from PNG on an emergency flight on March 28.
Mr Wong told News Corp Australia that Mr Smith’s death was “a sad day for Papua New Guinea” and proved that COVID-19 “does not discriminate”.
“Mal Kela Smith was an institution of Papua New Guinea,” Mr Wong told News Corp Australia.
“He was one of the first to push into the aviation industry, he did a lot of work around the country but he ended up living in the Eastern Highlands.”
Mr Wong said Mr Smith’s business, Pacific Helicopters, helped transport people living in rural areas to medical appointments.
“He helped a lot of people through his business, his chopper business, in very rural areas – he used to be very good at bringing people out of remote areas to get hospital checks.”
Mr Wong said Mr Smith, who was born in the UK, had been elected governor of the eastern highlands twice and served as chairman of the provincial hospital board.
PNG officials are now in the process of repatriating the respected leader’s body back to the Eastern Highlands.
MORRISON’S APPROVAL DOWN: NEWSPOLL
The Prime Minister’s approval rating has plummeted amid a war of words with premiers over the COVID vaccine rollout and sexual assault allegations involving parliament, a Newspoll has revealed.
The Coalition has lost significant electoral ground across Western Australia and Queensland and is facing collapse in South Australia, The Australian reports.
Demographic and state-based analysis of Newspoll data, The Australian reports, suggests the Coalition would need to restore support in the resource states to retain government.
On a two-party-preferred basis, the Coalition now trails Labor 49-51 per cent averaged over the past four Newspolls compared with a lead of 51-49 in the December analysis.
The analysis has also revealed that the Coalition has suffered a flight of male voters rather than female over the past three months, The Australian reports.
It comes as Australia is falling well behind in the race to vaccinate its people against COVID-19, opposition health spokesman Mark Butler warns.
Labor has ramped up its attack on the federal government’s vaccine rollout, saying protection against different variants is being put at risk if people have not even received a jab.
More than 840,000 vaccines have been administered so far, with authorities forced to abandon their initial goal to inoculate four million Australians by the end of March due to supply shortages.
“We are way behind schedule here and it’s becoming very serious,” Mr Butler said on Tuesday.
“Although the Prime Minister said that this is not a race, it is a race.
“There is a time imperative in getting vaccinations into people’s arms.”
Mr Butler told ABC RN that the jabs were not only needed to build confidence and reopen the economy.
“We need to get the current generation of vaccines into people before we have to consider the possibility of booster shots,” he said.
“This virus is mutating. We’re seeing that with a range of different variants, now the dominant strains around the world.
“If we don’t get out skates on, we’re not going to be ready for those booster shots.”
Mr Butler has called on the commonwealth to agree to a push for large vaccination centres operated by state governments – something that is already earmarked for phase 2a of the vaccine rollout.
He also wants pharmacists to be brought on before June to assist the rollout.
“There is just not enough hands at the wheel,” Mr Butler said.
Deputy chief medical officer Michael Kidd previously said the international approach of vaccinations at sporting stadiums and churches was not necessary.
However, Professor Kidd on Tuesday said that was not being ruled out.
“We’re working with the states and territories on the additional sites,” he told ABC Breakfast.
“We’re told the Americans are delivering a million doses a day.
“Population wise, we’re actually delivering the equivalent of more than that here in Australia, and it is continuing to rise.”
The number of GP clinics offering vaccine services is due to double to 3000 by the end of this week.
Professor Kidd said health experts were “very concerned” about international reports of blood clots following the AstraZeneca vaccine and had held talks with European and UK drug regulators.
Australia is expected to receive more advice on Wednesday. But Professor Kidd said the benefits of the vaccine and its rollout “far outweighed the risks of this possible side effect”.
State and territory leaders will on Friday meet for national cabinet, where the vaccine rollout will be discussed.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is understood to be supportive of daily vaccine data to be made public following calls from Queensland and NSW.
Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles on Monday hit back at vaccine rollout criticism directed at the states, accusing the government of trying to distract from allegations of rape and sexual harassment at Parliament House.
Former Labor leader Bill Shorten told Today that the Morrison government was “embarrassed” by the time it was taking to roll out the vaccine.
“I also think that they have spent a lost time putting the boot into the Queensland government, and now the Queensland government returned fire and they don’t like it,” Mr Shorten said.
“At the end of the day Steven Miles has got a truth in what he says.”
Mr Shorten has called on the government to pay people penalties to work after hours and on weekends so vaccines can be administered around the clock.
“It’s time to treat the vaccination as a national emergency,” he said.
VACCINE ROLLOUT ‘A DISTRACTION FROM SCANDAL’
Queensland’s deputy premier has accused Scott Morrison of using the vaccine rollout delay as a distraction from the “Brittany Higgins, rape and sexual harassment” scandal in Canberra.
Steven Miles said the federal government’s recent criticism of the slow rollout of the vaccine has been fuelled by the criticism of the treatment of women at Parliament House.
Mr Miles said he expected the Prime Minister would continue to highlight issues about the vaccine in the lead up to the national cabinet meeting on Friday.
“There’s been a lot of issues around since the last national cabinet,” Mr Miles said.
“No doubt the Prime Minister will continue to try to use the vaccine rollout and COVID more generally to distract from the government’s other problems.
“That’s been a very orchestrated campaign to try to stop you all (the media) talking about Brittany Higgins and rape and sexual harassment and all of the things that have happened in Canberra.”
Mr Miles criticised Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s comments claiming last week’s three-day lockdown of Brisbane was an over-reaction from Annastacia Palaszczuk.
“They were in fact so eager to distract everybody from those topics that they put at risk confidence in their own vaccine rollout program that continued yesterday with Peter Dutton’s outrageous attack on our premier,” he said.
“If Scott Morrison stays true to form, then I’d expect over the coming days they will continue to find lots of distractions so people are talking about that and not the treatment of women in Canberra.”
Mr Miles said the proposed use of a quarantine facility to be built near the Wellcamp Airport in Toowoomba was a priority for the state government.
National’s Deputy Leader David Littleproud defended the federal government’s approach to the vaccine rollout amid rising tensions with the states, saying there was always clarity about vaccine supply and that Australia has been “badly let down” by the EU.
“It’s about being transparent and honest,” he told Nine’s Today show on Monday. “This is the biggest vaccination program our country has ever seen and it’s important we understand what’s happening with it. The arithmetic is simple on this. We are three million short because of the EU, who cut us short”.
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Originally published as COVID-19: TGA makes it easier to move Pfizer jab in Australia as NZ worker tests positive
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