Australia's COVID-19 vaccination program enters another phase today, with people over the age of 50 now able to get the AstraZeneca shot from their GP.
The vaccination program was opened up to people between the ages of 50 and 70 two weeks ago, through state-run vaccination centres and Commonwealth respiratory clinics.
But from today, anyone in that age bracket can instead visit one of the more than 4,000 GP clinics across the country registered as part of the program.
"There are over 4,300 GPs delivering vaccines to people aged 50 years and over from 17 May," the federal health department said in a statement.
"More than 1,500 of those are in the regions, in regional, rural and remote Australia."
Patients will be offered the AstraZeneca shot, after Australian medical officials advised people under the age of 50 should receive the Pfizer dose instead.
Vaccine supplies ramping up as GPs join next phase of rollout
The number of COVID-19 doses administered across Australia has passed the three-million mark, a figure still well short of the government's initial expectations.
Canberra-based doctor Thinus van Rensburg is one of thousands of GPs whose vaccine deliveries are being boosted in an attempt to speed up the rollout.
"We were happy to have had our allocation, our 50 vaccines a week, increased to about 150," he said.
"So hopefully those increased allocations will start to be delivered next week and at this stage our plan is to continue administering as close as we can to 150 a week as soon as our supplies are coming in."
Dr van Rensburg said the uptake of AstraZeneca had been strong so far, despite concerns about possible links to blood clots.
"And we've had a really good response in terms of people rocking up for their appointments.
"It's very, very rare that we have people not rocking up, I'd say at least about 95, 98 per cent of our appointments are being kept.
"And I trust it will be the same once we increase it to 150 a week."
