The Australian Government has launched the next phase in its COVID-19 vaccination communications campaign, 'Spread Freedom', to encourage the remaining 13.2 per cent of the eligible population who aren't yet vaccinated to come forward to get the jab.
Four jurisdictions - New South Wales (NSW), Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) - have now passed the 70 per cent double-dose vaccination mark, and our nationwide rate is more than 73 per cent.
NSW and the ACT have both passed the 80 per cent double-dose mark - and Victoria will do so in coming days.
'Spread Freedom' creates a sense of encouragement and a feeling of enjoying more freedoms as Australia opens up, as Australians start to return to travelling overseas, birthday parties, weddings, and a family Christmas.
The advertisements provide a positive, hopeful tone, with a touch of humour, to motivate those who are more hesitant, to get vaccinated to avoid missing out on greater freedoms.
The 'Spread Freedom' materials are appearing across all media channels.
Meanwhile, to further encourage First Australians to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the Government has launched a new project entitled "For all of us'.
This project features a number of high profile Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who have come together to encourage their mob to get vaccinated.
Model Samantha Harris, musician Baker Boy, chef Nornie Bero, street artist Tori-Jay Mordey and renowned didgeridoo player and vocalist William Barton all encourage further vaccination uptake and seek to combat vaccine hesitancy.
The project conveys the simple message: 'For our past, for our future, for all of us. Get vaccinated for COVID-19'.
Supplying and producing the vaccine
The ability to manufacture vaccines onshore has been essential to the progress of our rollout and CSL has now manufactured and supplied 22,244,400 doses of vaccine for use in Australia.
Last week, 3,921,840 doses of Pfizer, 748,900 doses of Moderna and 773,700 doses of AstraZeneca were released for distribution.
Over the coming days, the TGA will conduct sample testing of 418,860 doses of Pfizer vaccine, 748,900 doses of Moderna vaccine, along with 331,660 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine produced onshore by CSL, prior to releasing the vaccines for distribution.
Distributing the vaccine
With support from our Distribution Partners DHL and Linfox, more than 1,897,960 vaccine doses were delivered across Australia to metropolitan, rural and remote locations, along with 3,361 deliveries of consumables.
- Ordering and Delivery. 88 per cent of vaccine orders were completed last week with 338 order of Pfizer, 24 order of Moderna and 6 orders of AstraZeneca to be finalised today.
- Australia's assistance to the Pacific. The week commencing 18 October 2021, another 1,260,00 doses were delivered to our partners in the Indo-Pacific. The Vaccine Access and Health Security Initiative (VAHSI) website lists the countries who have received doses shared by Australia.
Administering the vaccine
This week, 1,711,025 doses were administered across the country, taking the total number of doses administered 34.3 million. It took 45 days to reach our first million doses of vaccine administered and 5 days for the most recent.
- Total sites. This week we had a total of almost 5,600 general practices, 137 Commonwealth Vaccination Clinics, 3,408 Pharmacies and 169 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services delivering vaccines, along with 925 state and territory sites, taking the total number of vaccination sites across the country to 10,196. Next week, we will have 12 additional general practices joining the program (commencing with AstraZeneca and Pfizer).
