COVID vaccine eligibility checker to be updated to make bookings easier

Updating Australia’s muddled online booking system for vaccines is this week’s number one priority for jab rollout tsar Commodore Eric Young.

Updating Australia’s muddled online booking system for vaccines is this week’s number one priority for jab rollout tsar Commodore Eric Young who wants to ensure everyone knows “how and where” to access an appointment.

The web “eligibility checker” will be overhauled to ensure those under 50 are able to specifically book an appointment for the Pfizer vaccine, and to expand the booking system from the end of this week for Phase 2A, including over 50s, to start on Monday.

Commodore Eric Young of the Vaccine Operations Centre says the vaccine eligibility checker and online booking system will be updated. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

“Each of the jurisdictions runs their Pfizer clinics in a slightly different way.

“Some of them will be contacting individuals directly to organise appointments and others will have Pfizer clinics up on the vaccine clinic finder progressively over this week,” Commodore Young said.

More than 1.93 million vaccine doses have been administered as of Sunday, with the latest Commonwealth data showing NSW is one again leading the larger states in delivering its allocation.

As of week nine, NSW delivered 74 per cent of its 292,310 doses available in the first two months, more than Queensland’s 67 per cent and only 64 per cent in NSW.

Health Minister Greg Hunt says the government will consider humanitarian aid for India due to the COVID-19 crisis. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

The federal government plans to deliver about 500,000 Pfizer and AstraZeneca doses across the country to GPs and states to administer this week, while an additional 707,000 doses of the onshore produced AstraZeneca vaccine is going through batch testing.

Older Australians are being urged to line up for the AstraZeneca jab, which will be made available in state and Commonwealth-run clinics to anyone over the age of 50 next Monday.

It follows a case of an 80-year-old man who had a blood clot in his leg after getting the vaccine, but is stable and recovering from the condition.

Australia looks to help India as COVID-19 crisis worsens

No option for dealing with the humanitarian crisis in India caused by a mass coronavirus outbreak has been ruled out ahead of a National Security Committee meeting on Tuesday.

Senior Morrison Government ministers will decide if Australia needs to go further than its previous decision to cut commercial flights from India by 30 per cent, including whether all planes must be entirely stopped to prevent travellers bringing a double mutant variant of COVID-19 home.

COVID-19 has ravaged New Dehli in India with hundreds of thousands of people contracting the virus. Picture: Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP

More than 350,000 cases of coronavirus have been diagnosed in India in just one day, as the country’s hospitals run out of oxygen struggling to cope with the number of seriously ill patients.

Health Minister Greg Hunt would not weigh in on the possibility of closing the border to India, but said the initial decision to slash flights was not made lightly.

“We will also consider whether the medical advice indicates whether additional measures are required,” he said.

“And if those additional measures are recommended, we will take them with the heaviest of hearts but without any hesitation.”

India is running out of oxygen and Australia will consider what supplies it can send immediately. Picture: Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP

About 17,000 Australian citizens in India have come home since the pandemic began, and a further 8,000 are still trying to return, which reduces the likelihood of a hard border closure.

When Australia closed to China in the early weeks of the pandemic, the Commonwealth still co-ordinated repatriation flights for citizens, including out of the virus ground-zero city, Wuhan.

It is also expected ministers at NSC will discuss what assistance Australia can offer its ally, with Mr Hunt describing India as “literally gasping for oxygen”.

“They are dying and unable to breathe,” he said.

“I think it is very important that we are sensitive to the suffering that (the Indian community) face and their friends and their family and their loved ones overseas face,” he said.