GPs to get COVID vaccines next week, rollout to start March 22

The nationwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations is set to begin on March 22, but concern is mounting about how long it will take for all Australians to get their jabs.

A majority of the 700,000 imported doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the country will be in the hands of GPs next week, ahead of the nationwide rollout set to begin on March 22.

The first locally produced CSL product will follow a week later.

With concerns mounting over the slow start to the vaccine rollout, the Commonwealth will look to encourage pharmacies to operate over 24 hours when they start vaccinating in May.

It is also keen for state government-run hospital hubs to begin vaccinating the general population on the same day the planned GP rollout starts.

Aged-care resident John Healy gets his a COVID-19 vaccination from Doctor Jesse Li. Picture: Mark Evans/Getty Images

Government sources said they remained confident CSL would meet its target of producing a million doses a week by the end of the month.

But with most GP surgeries across Australia set to receive only 50 doses in the first weeks after March 22, concern is growing about how long it will take for the vaccination program to scale up.

AMA NSW president Danielle McMullen said frustration was building among doctors about the “drip feed of information” from the government.

“People have been patient for weeks and months but the public and the doctors want to know what the plan is,” she said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday rejected suggestions there was any slippage in the timeline for vaccination, saying it was clear in February that the change in the advice on giving the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine 12 weeks, rather than four weeks, after the first meant the end of October wouldn’t be possible.

Mr Morrison said that as the number of GPs involved ramped up to more than 4000 in coming weeks “that army of dose administrators will be significant, and we will get to the point also with the rollout of the domestically produced vaccines from AstraZeneca out of Melbourne and that will really enable us to ramp up.

The PM also rejected calls for Australia to follow some European countries which have suspended their AstraZeneca rollout because of concerns it could cause blood clots, saying “that is not the view of our medical advisers”.

Government sources said the locally-produced AstraZeneca doses from CSL have cleared a majority of Therapeutic Goods Administration tests, with one minor final check remaining before delivery to GPs can begin.

Opposition Health and Ageing spokesman Mark Butler said the first three weeks of the rollout had not sent a good signal.

“We’re running well behind schedule already, and the systems that the Commonwealth should have had up and running ready to go as soon as the vaccines were approved are still weeks away,” he said.

“People don’t know how they’re going to be able to book to get a vaccine. GPs are being told even when they’ve done the hard work to get ready to deliver the vaccines, that they’ll only get 50 doses per week when they might be able to deliver as many as 1000 per week.”

Originally published as GPs to get COVID vaccines next week, rollout to start March 22