The biggest shipment of coronavirus vaccine doses to arrive in Australia so far touched down in Sydney on Sunday morning, with 300,000 AstraZeneca doses reaching our shores.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed with Oxford University in the United Kingdom, is the major pillar of Australia's vaccine rollout at almost 54 million doses on order.
Fifty million doses will be manufactured in Australia through a licensing agreement with pharmaceutical giant CSL, but the first doses have been imported from Europe.
Australia's medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, will batch test the vaccines before they are made available to states and territories starting March 8.
Of the 300,000 doses arriving on Sunday, 200,000 will be released to the states and territories next week. An extra 50,000 Pfizer vaccines have been made available to the states and territories for this week's vaccine rollout.
"The University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine will undergo the same rigorous TGA process to batch check the vaccine that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine underwent," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
"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 shipment will allow the vaccine rollout to increase in speed, as most Australians are set to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Unlike the Pfizer vaccine, which requires ultra cold storage, the AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored in standard fridges, making it easier to be used in rural and remote parts of the country.
"The cold chain requirements of this vaccine - it can be stored and handled in the same way as any other vaccine - make it a very good candidate for a country like Australia," Health Minister Greg Hunt said.
"As well, vaccine providers can use some of the vaccine vial, put the rest back in the fridge for 48 hours and use the rest the next day."
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark canberratimes.com.au
- Download our app
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
