HOTEL quarantine workers, essential healthcare staff and aged care residents will be among the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from next week.
The Department of Health and Human Services said on Wednesday that “high-risk, priority people” would get the Pfizer jab at nine regional health services across Victoria from Monday.
It is unclear, though, when the vaccine will arrive in Mildura for frontline health workers and the elderly.
Bendigo Health is in charge of transporting the Pfizer vaccine – which needs to be stored in freezers at -70 degrees – right across the Loddon Mallee region, from Mildura down to Woodend in the Macedon Ranges.
It declined to comment on how it would overcome the logistical challenges in getting the vaccine to Mildura Base Public Hospital before its effectiveness was lost.
The Pfizer vaccine was initially thought to be only effective for two hours after being placed into a syringe. However, new research shows it can last up to six hours, which means it will survive the four-hour drive from Bendigo to Mildura.
According to the DHHS, vaccinations will also take place in residential aged care and disability facilities in the early stages of the rollout.
It is then expected to announce “many further” vaccination sites across Victoria, including local community-based GP sites.
“Our priority is to make sure the Commonwealth’s vaccine rollout will be administered to priority groups in Victoria, regardless of location, as quickly and safely as possible,” a department spokeswoman said.
It comes as the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) this week granted provisional approval to AstraZeneca for its COVID-19 vaccine.
It will initially be imported before supplies start coming out of CSL’s facility in Melbourne.
AstraZeneca played down concerns over the use of its COVID-19 vaccine on elderly patients after Australia’s medical regulator recommended patients aged over 65 should be treated on a case-by-case basis.
TGA boss John Skerritt said elderly patients had shown a strong immune response in clinical trials, but there were not enough participants to conclusively determine efficacy for that group.
AstraZeneca said the evidence to date suggested elderly recipients produced a strong immune response and tolerated the vaccine well.
“If you listen to what Professor Skerritt said, all people should be vaccinated and that includes over 65s,” AstraZeneca Australia president Liz Chatwin said.
“It’s really important to remember that we’re in a global pandemic and there are thousands of people being admitted to hospital and dying every day, and people over 65 are more at risk.
“So the overwhelming public health advice is that as many people as possible should be vaccinated.”
AstraZeneca’s vaccine has been found to have an efficacy rate of 82 per cent when two doses are administered 12 weeks apart.
Almost four million doses of the vaccine will be imported into Australia from overseas before 50 million doses are manufactured locally.
The first locally-produced doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are expected to be administered by the end of March.
This is the vaccine that will be available for most residents across north-west Victoria.
