Aussies have gift of jab
HEALTH workers have been told to be ready to start giving patients the COVID-19 vaccine in just six days after the first doses of the Pfizer jab arrived in Australia yesterday.
From Monday, Australia will embark on its biggest logistic exercise in peacetime with the rollout of the vaccination program over 251 days, eventually administering up to 150,000 jabs a day.
The first shipment of 142,000 Pfizer vaccines — Australians’ ticket to travelling overseas again — touched down in Sydney shortly after noon, ready for the first phase of the rollout to start on February 22.
From today consent forms will be available online for the guardians of aged-care residents to sign up their loved ones to receive a jab in coming weeks, while states are preparing to administer vaccines to quarantine workers.
The federal government has committed to vaccinating more than 20 million people by the end of October, starting with 80,000 Pfizer doses before increasing to more than a million jabs a week also using the AstraZeneca candidate.
In a vote of confidence for both jabs, Australia’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly said he would happily take either.
“It would be to demonstrate my faith in both of them and they’re equal,” Prof Kelly said.
From the first Pfizer shipment, about 62,000 jabs are being kept aside as insurance to guarantee recipients receive their second doses at the correct time even if there are supply chain issues.
Of the rest, 50,000 will be shared between the states on a percentage of population basis, and 30,000 will be distributed by the federal government to aged-care facilities.
The Pfizer shipment was brought by plane from the Belgian capital Brussels to Singapore and then Sydney Airport, where it was unloaded and transported to a secret DHL warehouse in Western Sydney.
Over the next few days the vials will be stored in special -70C freezers as health authorities carry out damage assessments and batch testing.
The vaccines will be packed into boxes insulated with dry ice and distributed to 200 cold storage facilities around the country before the rollout starts on Monday.
Health Minister Greg Hunt announced the moment by declaring “the eagle has landed”
— and confirmed in addition to the Pfizer doses arriving the government was expecting the Therapeutic Goods Administration to make a decision on the AstraZeneca jab “in the near future”.
“That should see a doubling of the number of doses per week by early March, if not earlier,” Mr Hunt said.
Australia’s leaders will roll up their sleeves for a “mix” of the available COVID-19 vaccines in Australia to show their faith in the jabs.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will be given the Pfizer vaccine in the first batch of doses, while Mr Hunt and Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine, subject to its approval.
SUBSCRIPTIONS 1300 696 397
Mr Morrison described the program as “one of the largest logistics exercises ever undertaken in this country”.
“This program has been developed by medical experts and it has been approved by medical experts so Australians can have confidence in the … strategy,” he said.
Aged-care residents are a priority in Phase 1A of the vaccine rollout, and a special workforce has been trained to direct nursing homes to provide the jabs.
Elderly people and agedcare workers in the first week of the rollout will be individually contacted by health officials, and a consent form has been made available online for families to prepare. clare.armstrong@news.com.au