Half a million extra Pfizer doses touch down in Sydney after vaccine swap

A flight carrying 500,000 additional Pfizer doses has touched down in Australia, providing a huge boost to the vaccine rollout.

Half a million additional doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine have arrived in Australia as part of a “vaccine swap” with Singapore.

Flight SQ 7292 arrived with the vaccines at Sydney airport on Thursday night.

The latest shipment of 500,000 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines arrives into Sydney International Airport from Singapore. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard – POOL via NCA NewsWire

The federal government says the vaccines will be distributed evenly around the country. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard – POOL via NCA NewsWire

Under the agreement, Australia received 500,000 Pfizer shots that are due to expire and will send the same number of doses back to Singapore in December.

The Morrison government has said the new doses will be distributed evenly around the country based on population.

The government hopes the deal will bolster supplies for younger people who are new to the vaccine rollout, most of whom have only recently become eligible for Pfizer.

“This deal gives us the further supplies we need as we bring new groups into the program for Pfizer, including 12 to 15 year olds from September 13, and the 16 to 39 year old age group that has already commenced,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

Mr Morrison thanked the Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his government for their support.

As of Thursday, 12,480,413 people in Australia – including 60.5 per cent of those aged over 16 – have had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.