More than 90 per cent of the Australian population aged 16 and over has now had their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine - and more than 83 per cent has had both doses.
Every state and territory across the country has now reached the 80 per cent first-dose vaccine mark - and every jurisdiction has hit the 70 per cent mark for the second dose.
Almost one million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered over the past seven days.
More than 260,000 individuals aged 16 and over have received more than two doses. These individuals include booster shots, additional third doses for individuals who are immunocompromised, or valid third doses received for other medical reasons.
A booster dose, six or more months after the second dose, will make sure the protection from the first doses is even stronger and longer lasting and should help prevent the virus from spreading.
Severely immunocompromised people who have had a third dose to complete their primary course of vaccination are not currently recommended to have a booster dose.
Only one booster dose is recommended and at this stage there is no recommendation for any further booster doses.
The high vaccination rates have enabled the Australian Government to continue to reopen the country, with the removal of the remaining restrictions on retail outlets at Australia's international airports.
These restrictions on certain retail outlets under the Biosecurity Act have operated to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading by people mingling at international airports.
The decision to repeal the Emergency Determination was based on advice from the Australian Government Chief Medical Officer.
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 24,630,400 doses of vaccine for use in Australia.
Last week, 417,690 doses of Pfizer, 0 doses of Moderna and 999,500 doses of AstraZeneca were released for distribution.
Over the coming days, the TGA will conduct sample testing of 1,599,390 doses of Pfizer vaccine, 500,400 doses of Moderna vaccine, along with 557,300 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 2,486,448 vaccine doses were delivered across Australia to metropolitan, rural and remote locations, along with 5,968 deliveries of consumables.
- Ordering and Delivery. 99.25 per cent of vaccine orders were completed last week with 27 order of Pfizer, 0 order of Moderna and 1 orders of AstraZeneca outstanding to be finalised today.
- Australia's assistance to the Pacific. The week commencing 25 October 2021, another 1,260,000 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, 932,224 doses were administered across the country, taking the total number of doses administered 37.7 million. It took 45 days to reach our first million doses of vaccine administered and 8 days for the most recent.
- Total sites. This week we had a total of over 5,620 general practices, 137 Commonwealth Vaccination Clinics, 3,439 Pharmacies and 172 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services delivering vaccines, along with 822 state and territory sites, taking the total number of vaccination sites across the country to 10,195. Next week, we will have 13 additional general practices joining the program (commencing with AstraZeneca and Pfizer).
- Pfizer doses for community pharmacies. The week commencing 8 November saw 165,720 Pfizer doses ordered for delivery to community pharmacies the week commencing 15 November 2021.
- The current outbreak in NT, and flow on concerns for QLD and WA communities are expected to result in an increased demand for vaccine, and need for urgent additional deliveries to sites and jurisdictional hubs.
