CANBERRA – Australia's first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines is set to arrive in the country within days, reports the Xinhua news agency.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said about 80,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will arrive in Australia "before the end of the week, if not earlier".
"Because this is the most precious of cargoes, we are being cautious with our details in a highly competitive global world," he told reporters here yesterday.
Australia has acquired 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which remains the only vaccine to be approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
Hunt said the TGA will conduct safety checks on the vaccines upon arrival and that Australia remains on track to begin administering vaccines to priority groups at the end of this month.
"The TGA will ensure that the numbers are correct, that they, in particular, haven't had any inflight actions that damage quality such as a loss of temperature," he said.
Under the planned roll-out, the government aims to have every Australian who wants a vaccine inoculated against Covid-19 by October.
However, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack conceded the roll-out would not "go flawlessly" while recently touring a vaccine storage facility, according to The Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
As of yesterday afternoon, there are 28,898 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Australia, and the numbers of local and overseas acquired cases in the last 24 hours were two and four, respectively. – Bernama, February 15, 2021
