Covid-19 booster program discussed at national cabinet

Scott Morrison has announced a change to Australia’s booster program following a snap national cabinet meeting.

Scott Morrison has announced a change to the Covid booster shot program as the health system struggles to roll out Australians’ third doses.

The Prime Minister on Wednesday declared that General Practitioners and Pharmacists would receive $10 extra from the federal government for administering the booster shot.

“I can announce that I have advised the premiers and chief ministers today that we will be increasing the payments to GPs and pharmacists,” Mr Morrison said.

“We’ll be increasing them up by $10 a jab.”

Pharmacists are now expected be reimbursed around $26-29 per jab while GPs will received $27-$50.

Scott Morrison. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

The announcement follows months of frustration from Australia pharmacists over the “insufficient” rates of pay offered to pharmacists of $16-$19 per booster dose.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia told NCA NewsWire that the reimbursement form the federal government only covered a fraction of the costs involved in administering the booster shots.

“The reason that so many pharmacies have chosen not to take up the stock of Pfizer for the booster doses is because of the remuneration being offered by the federal government,” Pharmacy Guild of Victoria President Anthony Tassone said.

“Pharmacists are essentially subsidising the Australian government's booster dose program.”

But on Wednesday, Mr Morrison said the new cash boost would propel the booster rollout forward significantly.

“This is an added incentive to keep that the primary care system for delivering vaccines at its as greater capacity as we possibly can,” he said.

In addition to the extra cash for Pharmacists and GPs, the Prime Minister said state vaccination hubs would also be reopened to help speed-up the rollout.

“We’ll get them up and running so we can hit those much higher vaccination marks which at its peak in general form, was around 350,000 doses a day,” Mr Morrison said.

“That‘s where we need it. We need to be able to return to those sorts of levels.”

But there was one measure the PM said he would not be taking regardless of how much it accelerated Australians’ uptake of the boosters.

On Wednesday, South Australian Premier called for the interval between the second and third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to be reduced from five months to four months.

Mr Marshall said cutting down the wait time would be “vital” to giving renewed protection to South Australians from the Omicron variant.

“What I'm hoping comes out of the national Cabinet today is an ability to bring forward that booster from five months down to four months,” he said.

But Mr Morrison would not be swayed, insisting it was up to Australia’s immunisation authority ATAGI to decide if and when to change the booster wait time.

“There's been no change to the interval,” he said.

“That will be determined by the immunisation experts and no one else.

“That is not a decision for myself.”