Advice sought after vaccine deaths

The Australian government is seeking “immediate” advice after Norway reported 29 deaths related to the Pfizer vaccine.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has asked the Therapeutic Goods Administration to seek further information on the Pfizer vaccine, following a Norwegian report about the risks of its administration.

Media reports out of Norway have flagged six more elderly patients who were given the vaccine died after being inoculated, bringing the total to 29.

The patients are all 75 and over, with 13 deaths already fully assessed and another 16 under review.

“Most people have experienced the expected side effects of the vaccine, such as nausea and vomiting, fever, local reactions at the injection site, and worsening of their underlying condition,” a statement from the Norwegian Medicines Agency said.

Australia has ordered 10 million doses of the vaccine, but the government has centred its plans around the Astrazeneca vaccine, of which the nation has secured 58 million doses, and the Novavax jab, of which it has 51 million doses.

“We have been in contact with the Foreign Minister, and Marise Payne will task DFAT to seek advice directly from the Norwegian government,” Hunt said.

The news comes as Hunt confirmed the federal government had removed all hot spots in Australia following only one confirmed case through community transmission in the past couple of days.

“Of course, inevitably, there will be days of new cases. There will be days where there may be a requirement for Commonwealth hotspot definition to be reintroduced. But they’ll be done on the basis of that, and cases.”

Despite the positive response to recent cluster outbreaks in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Queensland, Hunt said Australia would still be impacted as the world continues to grapple with soaring virus numbers.

“We‘re not out of the woods because the world isn’t out of the woods,” he said. “And our challenges remain always, while there is a disease that is abroad in the rest of the world, but Australians are doing incredibly well.”

The announcement by the federal government comes as both Victoria and Queensland record no new local cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours.

New South Wales reported six locally transmitted cases, all linked to an existing cluster in western Sydney.

— news.com.au