Pfizer will produce 85 million booster shots for Australia, with the first batch to arrive sometime next year.
Key points:
- 60 million doses will be sent to Australia next year and 25 million doses are due to arrive in 2023
- The PM says it will allow every Australian to have a booster shot
- Labor says priority should be placed on making vaccines locally
The federal government signed a deal with the multinational pharmaceutical company in recent days, but has refused to say how much it will cost.
Sixty million doses will be sent to Australia next year, and the remaining 25 million are due to arrive in 2023.
They will be offered to people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, to provide further protection from new strains of the virus, and are on top of the 40 million doses ordered to arrive this year.
In a statement, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the deal would allow every Australian to have a booster shot if needed.
"This will ensure individuals, families and communities have certainty about their continued protection against the evolving threat of COVID-19 over the next two years," he said.
ABC News: Nicolas Perpitch
)ATAGI hasn't recommended boosters yet
Booster shots are not yet formally part of Australia's vaccine rollout program.
That's because the nation's vaccine advisory body, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), is yet to recommend additional doses.
However countries across the globe are already looking at options, and earlier this year Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said he expected people would "likely" need a third shot.
Health Minister Greg Hunt recently said while ATAGI was yet to make a decision, the government was already planning ahead.
"There's no final decision as to whether a booster will be required, but we are planning as if a booster will be required," he said earlier this month.
"At this stage, our best advice is that mRNA and, in particular as well, protein vaccines would be the ideal candidates for a booster."
ABC News: Danielle Bonica
)Federal Labor welcomed the government's announcement, but frontbencher Bill Shorten said it would not solve current supply problems.
"That's a good announcement, but aren't we then relying on the global supply chains again?" Mr Shorten said on Insiders.
"What happens if the variant changes or someone else needs it? We have to make it here."
The federal government has asked Australian businesses to make mRNA vaccines, but it could take four years before local production starts.
Vaccines 'a ticket out of the pandemic'
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said it was important for people to be immunised as soon as possible.
“This virus is not going away. There is one ticket out of this crisis, and that is vaccinations,” he told Sky News.
But a lack of supply and changing medical advice on the AstraZeneca vaccine has slowed down the rollout.
Yesterday, ATAGI encouraged anyone in greater Sydney, regardless of their age, to "strongly consider" getting the AstraZeneca vaccine, due to the increasing risk of COVID-19 and lack of Pfizer supplies.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed ATAGI's new statement, after last week publicly calling for the vaccine panel to reconsider its position.
He was asked today if he would call on ATAGI to now broaden its guidance so it applied across the country, given outbreaks can occur anywhere across the country at anytime.
"I'm quite confident that ATAGI will continue to assess the advice based on the risk they have articulated," he said.
Mr Morrison said there had been needless hesitation surrounding AstraZeneca's vaccine and encouraged people to put their hand up for the vaccine.
"There is some 1.3 million AstraZeneca vaccines that are available, they are in the fridge, they are ready to go," he said.
NSW still calling for more doses
New South Wales pleaded with other states to give it some of their doses, but that request was denied by National Cabinet, before the federal government offered an additional 50,000 doses from Commonwealth reserves.
Mr Morrison said it would not be appropriate to take allocated supplies away from other states and give them to New South Wales.
"We cannot disrupt its implementation around the country, which would put other parts of the country at risk," he said.
New South Wales will receive 90,000 doses more this week than it received at the beginning of the month as anticipated in the rollout program, but Mr Morrison said New South Wales could not rely on doses alone to end the outbreak.
However, Mr Shorten called on states to hand over spare vaccines, naming his own home state of Victoria, as well as Western Australia and Queensland.
"We have become the United Nations of Australia. I'm sick of the fact that we have eight mini-countries,” he said.
"I think in Victoria and the rest of Australia, if there are unsubscribed, unscheduled vaccines, Sydney is where the trouble is.
“We are Australians first, we are cheering our team on in Tokyo, but here we are in the Hunger Games, and I think people are over the squabbling."
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2021-07-25 03:13:24Z
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