Covid vaccine Qld: Federal figures show Pfizer supply is secure

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath has warned the state’s Pfizer doses will run out, but federal figures paint a different picture.

Queensland’s bluff it would imminently run out of Pfizer doses has been called out by the Federal Government, with new figures revealing vaccine stocks will double by the end of July to 127,290 doses a week.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath this week claimed there would come a point in the state-controlled vaccination program when Pfizer stocks would run out and the jab rate would need to dramatically decrease.

But Federal Government figures reveal the state’s Pfizer allocation will ramp up to 64,350 each week in July — up from 54,990 currently.

In light of Pfizer becoming the recommended vaccine for people aged 50 to 59, Queensland GPs will also see their stocks of the vaccine rapidly increase.

Queensland GPs and Commonwealth-run respiratory clinics will have 62,940 Pfizer doses each week by the end of July — a tenfold increase.

Ms D’Ath argued it was “no secret” the forward vaccine program was “at risk” because the federal government “can’t guarantee Queensland the vaccine supply it needs”.

“We’re administering more than 80,000 doses a week but the Morrison government is only supplying 65,000 doses – the Commonwealth isn’t keeping up,” she said.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, in a letter to his Queensland counterpart earlier this month, reminded the state to manage the proportion of first jabs and second jabs it was administering in order to work within its weekly allocation.

The federal government also pointed to data that showed Queensland had 150,488 Pfizer jabs on hand as at June 21 – nearly twice what the state was able to administer last week.

The federal government pointed to data that showed Queensland had 150,488 Pfizer jabs on hand as at June 21 — nearly twice what the state was able to administer last week.

For the first time the health department also released long-awaited projects detailing the vaccine doses each state and territory can expect each week for the rest of the year.

Under the plan the state government can expect to receive up to 126,000 doses of Pfizer a week in September, before this increases to 155,000 a week in the final quarter.

At the same time GPs and primary care can expect up to 140,000 Pfizer doses a week in September, in addition to the 25,000 Moderna doses that will begin arriving each week that month.

It is expected the need for AstraZeneca will wane drastically in the last three months of the year and will be sent out to clinics only by request.

“The assumptions in the ranges there is for all of those people and cohorts that AstraZeneca is preferred we think they’ll have received their AstraZeneca before the fourth quarter,” Lieutenant General John Frewen said.

Originally published as Covid vaccine Qld: Federal figures show Pfizer supply is secure