Coronavirus: Millions of Pfizer jabs set for October rollout

AstraZeneca will only be supplied upon request by October as Australia relies on Pfizer, Moderna to inoculate population.

People line up to receive their COVID-19 vaccination at the NSW Health Vaccination hub in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Australia will receive as many as 2.3 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from Pfizer every week by the start of October, when it will phase out the use of AstraZeneca.

Under pressure over the uncertainty of future vaccine supply, the commonwealth’s Covid-19 task force on Tuesday published detailed timelines which show AstraZeneca stocks to the states and GP clinics increasing to between 2.2 million and 2.6 million a week in July before decreasing in September and being phased out the following month.

Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid

The fall in AstraZeneca vaccines will come as the number of Pfizer doses rises rapidly from between 650,000 and 750,000 in July to between 1.7 million and 2.3 million in October.

Despite the planned increase, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Karen Price said the projected allocations meant demand for vaccinations would still likely outstrip supply until September. “It looks like in quarter four, we’re going to be okay,” Dr Price said. “But I do think we’ll have a period where we’ll still have to stratify that demand a little bit.”

Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid

The nation’s biggest states – including NSW and Queensland – earlier this week said they would have to consider cutting the number of Covid-19 vaccines administered because of a lack of supply from the commonwealth.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath also flagged the possibility of running out of first dose allocations altogether after health guidelines changed to recommend Pfizer for those aged between 50 and 59 – previously part of the AstraZeneca program.

Lieutenant General John Frewen, who is leading the commonwealth’s Covid-19 task force, said there was an assumption that all of the cohorts for who the AstraZeneca was recommended were likely to have had both doses of the vaccine by October.

“For any people who still do require AstraZeneca, we will have allocations available into the fourth quarter and we fully expected that there’ll be adequate supply of AstraZeneca well into the fourth quarter,” he said.

Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid

“As the amounts of the drugs increase through quarter three … we are going to make sure that we have the capacities necessary to deliver those drugs at the rates that we will need to.

“And that’s going to require a partnership between the states and the federal government to make sure that we have got the appropriate nodes to do that.”

Under the plan, a proportion of people aged under 60 will begin to receive the Moderna vaccine from September, with between 87,000 and 125,000 doses a week expected to be allocated to the states and territories and to primary care.

It’s clear from the allocation projections the reason why some states were concerned that they would not have enough supplies of Pfizer to meet demand in coming months. Allocations to the states and territories of Pfizer will be between 353,340 and 410,000 doses per week in July and August, rising to between 460,000 and 660,000 in September. But while Pfizer doses to GPs will more than double by October, the states’ allocations will rise by between only 100,000 and 150,000 per week.

Victoria has indicated it has the capacity to administer double the number of vaccinations it currently delivers.

The number of daily vaccinations recorded nationally was 66,061 on June 22 – the latest figures available – down from 82,523 doses administered on June 15.

University of South Australia epidemiologist Adrian Esterman said the Pfizer should be made available to everyone immediately, given the threat posed by the Delta Covid-19 variant.

Professor Esterman said that with the increasing number of doses of Pfizer vaccine available from September onwards, it was urgent that people get fully vaccinated as soon as possible.

“The trouble now with this Delta variant is we know that everyone has to have two doses for vaccination to be effective against it,” Professor Esterman said.