Covid vaccines: Pfizer jabs fast-tracked from UK and Singapore

About 450,000 Pfizer vaccines were on their way from the UK to Australia on Saturday. This comes as a further 500k vaccines were being brought in from Singapore ahead of schedule.

Australia’s vaccination campaign has taken two significant leaps forward, with 500,000 Pfizer doses from Singapore to be fast-tracked to centres nationwide this week and approval for children to be given the Moderna jab.

The Pfizer vaccines will be placed on the distribution network in coming days after passing Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) batch and lab tests a few days earlier than had been anticipated.

The doses will be supplemented with additional 450,000 Pfizer jabs being dispatched from the UK – 160,000 more than had been initially planned after the government was able to secure an ­additional charter flight.

The doses are part of a four million Pfizer vaccine deal the government made with the UK, with the vaccines to arrive over coming weeks.

Pfizer vaccinations sourced from UK being loaded on to a plane bound for Australia. Picture: Supplied

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the earlier than expected approval of the batch tests and authorisation for release for distribution and administration to Australians was welcome news.

“The 500,000 doses from Singapore has now been cleared,” he said.

“That wasn’t expected until Monday but this means they can be on the trucks tomorrow and distributed from this week.

“We’ve also managed to get more doses in the first dispatch from the UK after managing to secure a second flight – we were expecting 290,000 but we got 450,000.”

The arrival of the additional vaccines comes at the same time as the ­federal government expands it vaccine eligibility, with the TGA giving provisional approval of the use of the Moderna vaccine in children.

In a move which will enable families to get jabbed together, state-based hubs, GP clinics and pharmacies will be able to deliver the doses to children aged from 12 to 17 years.

The decision follows the provisional approval granted by the TGA on Aug­ust 9 for the use of the vaccine in Australians aged 18 years and over.

It is understood pharmacies will be able to offer Moderna, also known as Spikevax, with vaccination rates ­already high for AstraZeneca.

Despite only offering vaccination in early June, pharmacies have already delivered around 400,000 jabs – a figure that is expected to significantly increase once Moderna ­become available, allowing families to get jabbed at the same time.

The recommended dose and dose interval for children will be the same as that for adults – two full doses given 28 days apart.

The TGA said Moderna has ­received regulatory approval for 12-17 year olds in countries including the United Kingdom, Canada and Switzerland, and the European Union.

“The decision to provisionally ­approve the vaccine for use in this age group was informed by expert advice from the Advisory Committee on Vaccines (ACV), an independent committee with expertise in scientific, medical and clinical fields including consumer representation,” it said.

The federal government has ­secured 25 million doses of Moderna as it moves to diversify vaccines available to Australians, including potential access to booster or variant vaccines should this be required.

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