Australians could soon get access to a second type of COVID booster shot, with manufacturer Moderna set to submit an application for approval to the country's medical regulator shortly.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said Moderna was due to apply to the Therapeutic Goods Administration in coming weeks.
The announcement comes as Australia passed 100,000 booster shots being administered across the country since the Pfizer top-up was approved for the general public last week.
Those who have received their full course of COVID vaccines more than six months ago are eligible for the Pfizer booster, regardless of their initial brand of vaccine.
"The booster program is ahead of expectations, and Australians are stepping forward and doing their bit," Mr Hunt told reporters in Melbourne.
"When (the TGA) have done their assessment and made their findings and found it to be safe, then that will be added to the list of boosters."
Ahead of Friday's national cabinet meeting, the first since COVID-affected states eased their lockdowns, Mr Hunt said discussions would centre on how hospital systems would handle an expected surge in infections.
"We will review progress, but progress has been good, and the hospital system in NSW and Victoria have really performed magnificently," Mr Hunt said.
"The critical thing will be to review progress to opening up and look for those milestones."
Health ministers will also meet on Thursday ahead of national cabinet to discuss hospital capacity.
It comes as Australia's most populous states recorded a spike in the number of new infections on Thursday.
Victoria reported 1247 more cases and nine additional deaths, following two consecutive days of new infections numbering below 1000.
NSW recorded 308 more cases, an uptick compared with recent days where new infections have come in below 200. There were also four more deaths.
Queensland registered three new cases in the state on Thursday, while there were 13 infections in the ACT.
Meanwhile, Australian scientists will investigate what COVID-19 does to the brain to find out more about the virus' long-term consequences.
The federal government has given University of Queensland researchers $900,000 to look at how COVID-19 interacts with brain cells.
The funding was part of $239 million doled out to more than 200 health and medical research projects.
"Many people experience after-effects of COVID and the world is still learning, but we want to be right at the front of research," Mr Hunt told Network 10 on Thursday.
"Many people recover and move forward from COVID, but there is a proportion that have what is known as long COVID and that can take different forms."
