First AstraZeneca doses arrive as Australia hits 30,000 vaccinations

The first vials of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine landed on Australian soil on Sunday morning, more than doubling the country’s number of vaccine doses.

An Emirates plane carried 300,000 doses of the vaccine, the second vaccine to be approved for use in Australia and the vaccine currently planned to be administered to the majority of the population, in to Sydney Airport at about 9.30am.

The first vials of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine arriving at Sydney Airport on Sunday morning.Credit: Edwina Pickles

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the delivery was “another point of hope” and “another point of protection” in the global pandemic which has claimed more than 2.5 million lives worldwide.

The first AstraZeneca doses are scheduled to be administered to people in phase 1a of the vaccine rollout from March 8, subject to batch test approval, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement.

Mr Hunt said there would be 200,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines sent to the states on March 8, more than double the number of Pfizer doses they have received since the start of the rollout last week. State governments are responsible for the administering of vaccines to their frontline health and quarantine workers, while the federal government is responsible for delivering vaccines to the aged care sector.

The first vials of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine arriving at Sydney Airport on Sunday morning.Credit: Edwina Pickles

In the meantime, 50,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be received by the states on Sunday and Monday.

“This is the next step as we ramp up the vaccine rollout,” Mr Morrison said of the arrival of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“The University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine will undergo the same rigorous TGA process to batch check the vaccine that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine underwent.

“We will now be able to scale up the vaccination rollout to our priority groups, including our most vulnerable Australians and to our frontline border and health workers.”

The arrival of the vaccines will ramp up Australia’s rollout of coronavirus vaccinations considerably, after the first injections of the Pfizer vaccine, the other vaccine currently approved for use, took place last Sunday morning.

Almost 30,000 Australians had been vaccinated against coronavirus by the end of Friday, the fifth day of the national rollout, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Sunday.

That figure included 8110 aged care and disability residents at 117 care facilities as well as frontline health and quarantine workers vaccinated at hubs in cities across the country.

Australia will have access to 53.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, enough to vaccinate the entire population. The majority of those doses – 50 million – will be produced at medical giant CSL’s facility in Melbourne, starting next month. The remaining doses are scheduled to arrive from overseas.

Australia is taking a “portfolio approach” to vaccinating the population, with doses set to come from numerous companies including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Novavax, should that vaccine successfully receive Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approval.

The first vials of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine arriving at Sydney Airport on Sunday morning.Credit: Edwina Pickles

The options have prompted community comparisons of the vaccines, with Pfizer’s phase 3 data suggesting 95 per cent effectiveness, while AstraZeneca’s data showed effectiveness of around 70.4 per cent, although this was bolstered to 80 per cent in smaller trials of doses of the vaccine administered three months apart, as has been recommended by the TGA.

However, Mr Hunt has emphasised the two vaccines currently approved by the TGA for use in Australia are both safe and effective.

“With both the two initial vaccines, the Pfizer and the AstraZeneca vaccine, the international evidence is that the safety impact for prevention of serious illness, hospitalisation, death has been determined to be up to 100 per cent,” he said previously.

From late March, and subject to regulatory approval, CSL will begin delivering 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine a week.

“Australia is in a unique position because importantly this vaccine gives us the ability to manufacture onshore. Every Australian who wishes to be vaccinated will be able to receive a vaccine this year,” the Prime Minister said.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is packaged in 10-dose vials, whereas the Pfizer vials contain six doses each. Most vaccines used in Australia are packaged in single-use vials and some, including NSW health authorities, have expressed concern that a lack of low dead space syringes in the country mean doses are being wasted.

A doctor was suspended from involvement in the rollout last week after he accidentally administered more than the recommended dose to two residents of a Brisbane aged care facility.

It was later revealed the doctor had not completed the compulsory training which informs practitioners the vaccines are packaged in multi-dose vials.

The first vials of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine arriving at Sydney Airport on Sunday morning.Credit: Edwina Pickles

On Sunday, Mr Hunt said the AstraZeneca vaccine would be particularly useful in rural communities, as it does not have the same cold chain requirements as the Pfizer vaccine. Vials can also be stored for up to 48 hours after use, reducing wastage.

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