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Australia’s COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

With the rollout of the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines in Australia currently underway and two vaccines already approved for use, we thought we’d take a closer look at the Australian Government’s COVID-19 vaccination program and see how the vaccines will be rolled out across Australia.

COVID Vaccine

Why are vaccines important?

Vaccines save millions of lives each year and are recognised as one of the most successful and cost effective health interventions.

They work to strengthen your immune system by training it to recognise and fight against specific viruses.

What we know about COVID-19 is that it can spread quickly and widely and has resulted in the death of over 2.3 million people worldwide, including over 900 deaths in Australia (as at 15 February 2021).

Having enough people in the community vaccinated against COVID-19 will help to slow down the spread of the disease and make outbreaks much less likely. It will also mean less need for preventative measures, such as border closures and travel restrictions, as well as improvements to the health, social and economic wellbeing of all Australians.

Which vaccines will Australians receive?

At the moment, two vaccines have been approved for use in Australia:

  1. Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine – the first vaccine approved for use in Australia for people 16 years of age and over. Two doses of this vaccine will be required, administered at least 21 days apart. It will initially be given to the first priority groups from the end of February. This includes aged care and disability care residents and workers, frontline health care workers, and quarantine and border workers.
  2. University of Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine – the second vaccine to be approved for use in Australia for people aged 18 and over. Two doses of this vaccine will be required, with the second dose administered between 4 to 12 weeks after the first. This is the vaccine that most Australians will receive. While initial doses will come from overseas and be delivered in early 2021, ongoing supply of the vaccine will be manufactured right here in Australia.

For a good overview of the COVID-19 vaccines that will be used in Australia, watch this short video>>

Who will receive these vaccines and when?

Everyone in Australia will be offered a free, safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine.

As COVID-19 vaccines become approved and available, they will be rolled out in phases, with the aim of having as many people in Australia vaccinated as possible in 2021.

The national COVID-19 vaccine rollout strategy outlines the phases in which vaccines will be made available to different groups. Priority groups, identified using public health, medical and epidemiological evidence, will be the first in Australia to be vaccinated.

While waiting for your turn to be vaccinated, it’s important to continue the good COVIDSafe habits adopted over the past year, including:

  • practising god hygiene;
  • maintaining physical distance;
  • staying at home and getting tested for COVID-19 if you are sick; and
  • downloading the COVIDSafe app.

 Are COVID-19 vaccines safe?

All vaccines used in Australia, including those being developed for COVID-19, are thoroughly tested and monitored to ensure their ongoing safety.

Before vaccines can be used in Australia, they must be rigorously tested on thousands of people in progressively larger trials.

If they are found to be safe and effective during the trial process, they can then be registered for use with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). The TGA undertakes a rigorous assessment and approval process for the safety, quality and effectiveness of all vaccines used in Australia.

For a more detailed look at how vaccines are tested and monitored for safety, watch this video>>

SmartVax’s role in monitoring COVID-19 vaccine safety

Once vaccines are used in Australia, they continue to be monitored for safety.

smartvax_immunisation_vaccination_logo

SmartVax, established by Illawarra Medical Centre’s Principal GP, Dr Alan Leeb, is one tool that plays a major role in monitoring the safety of vaccines in Australia.

In partnership with AusVaxSafety, SmartVax has developed a new COVID-19 vaccine-ready version to specifically monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in Australia.

It works by sending a text message with a survey link at 3, 8 and 42 days after receiving a COVID-19 vaccination. The survey asks whether any reactions to the vaccine were experienced and invites you to provide more information regarding:

  • the nature, severity and duration of any reactions;
  • past medical history; and
  • lost time from work.

Your GP is informed of any medically attended reactions and a public health notification is made to the relevant public health authority, in keeping with local legislation.

The de-identified data from this is stored and monitored by AusVaxSafety – Australia’s national safety surveillance system responsible for the analysis, collation, visualisation and dissemination of Australia’s vaccine safety data – and used for communication with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and Australian Government Department of Health (DOH).

SmartVax’s active adverse event surveillance following COVID-19 vaccination will form an important role in the monitoring of the safe roll out of this vaccine program across Australia.

For more information on this topic, visit: