Australia secures 20 million more doses of Pfizer vaccine

Australia has secured 20 million more doses of the Pfizer vaccine overnight, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced.

The government on Thursday decided to make Pfizer the preferred vaccine for people aged under 50 after medical experts expressed concerns about rare blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announcing Australia has secured 20 million more doses of the Pfizer vaccine.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Australia had previously bought 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine but was relying more heavily on the AstraZeneca product, which is being manufactured by CSL in Melbourne.

The government anticipates the 20 million new doses will be available in the final quarter of 2021, Mr Morrison said.

“We will obviously be doing everything we can to seek to move that forward where we can but that is very welcome news,” he said.

In terms of when the Pfizer vaccines will be available for Australians, Health Minister Greg Hunt said the numbers would expand in April, significantly expand again in May and from July there is expected to be a near-doubling.

The company has asked the government to stick with indicative timing at this point, but Mr Hunt said they were working to bring forward as many doses as possible.

The first deliveries of Australia’s Novavax vaccines are also expected to start arriving from overseas, pending regulatory approval, between July and September.

The recommendation to use the Pfizer vaccine as a preference for under-50s was made by the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation on Thursday after considering the medical evidence of the rare blood clotting condition, venous thromboembolism, and weighing the risk and benefits.

Mr Morrison stressed the recommendation from ATAGI was not a ban or prohibition on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“We are talking in the vicinity of five to six [cases of the clotting condition] per million people, which is a rather rare event. But it must be acknowledged,” he said. “It’s important so Australians can make informed decisions.

“There was no instruction not to take that vaccine. There is an acknowledgement of the risk that is there, but as is the case always with these matters, these are decisions for Australians.”

The medical experts made three recommendations, including that AstraZeneca was preferred in adults over 50. They also recommended adults under the age of 50 should only be given AstraZeneca where the benefits clearly outweighed the risks. Third, it recommended that adults under 50 who had already received their first doses without experiencing serious side effects could safely be given their second dose.

The Prime Minister said the vaccine rollout would continue to focus on phases 1A and 1B and the government was hoping to continue at the pace already set out.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly and Health Minister Greg Hunt.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“This is important because the goal here is to protect the most vulnerable in our community. If we want to treat COVID-19 like the flu then we need to ensure that we’re vaccinating those in our community who are most vulnerable,” he said.

The Health Minister said the basic settings of the vaccine rollout were “largely unchanged” for phases 1A, 1B and 2A.

“With regards to phase 1B, this is the over 70s and the over 80s and over-55 Indigenous Australians. All of those can continue to receive, with the strongest medical advice, the AstraZeneca [vaccine],” Mr Hunt said.

“For those who may be immunocompromised or frontline workers who are under 50, then right now we are working with the states and territories and the medical authorities to revise that part of the program so they have access to Pfizer. That will take time.”

Health Department Secretary Brendan Murphy said he had “absolute complete confidence” the AstraZeneca vaccine was highly effective, highly recommended and safe for people aged over 50.

“This condition [clotting] is seen more commonly in younger people and the risk of COVID ... as you are over 50 exponentially increases. The ratio of benefit to risk is massively in favour of getting vaccinated,” he said.

Asked whether CSL should switch to making the Novavax vaccine instead, Dr Murphy said Australia still needed significant quantities of AstraZeneca to protect people aged over 70 and finish the program already started.

“At the moment, CSL is making AstraZeneca. We need it and our elderly Australians need to have it in their arms,” he said.

He said the government was in discussion with CSL about whether it could produce other vaccines but, for now, it could only make one type at a time.

Scott Morrison committed to releasing updated data about the vaccine rollout daily.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

More than a million doses of vaccine have now been administered, and the Prime Minister committed to releasing updated data about the vaccine rollout daily.

Mr Morrison said the government was not in a position yet to confirm the timetable of the recalibrated vaccination rollout. Asked whether he could give people certainty that all adult Australians would have at least one dose by Christmas, the Prime Minister said he wasn’t in a position yet to be able to do that.

Easing restrictions

The announcement of the new vaccines came after national cabinet met on Friday, where leaders asked the medical expert panel to come up with thresholds for how much of the population would need to be vaccinated for Australia to start travelling overseas and return without having to go into hotel quarantine, and whether travel bubble arrangements can be set up with other low-risk countries.

Mr Morrison said the leaders are working towards opening the country, but “no one is saying that any of those things are coming in today”.

“We want to open up more, we want to do it safely, we want to ease restrictions, we want to do that in a consistent way across the country and we want to do that because we know we are not just managing the health but we are managing the economics as well for people’s livelihoods and wellbeing.”

Leaders also agreed to new COVID-safe rules that all restrictions on venues should be eased to allow one person per two square metres and that large ticketed and seated gatherings can operate at 100 per cent capacity.

with Rachel Clun

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