This week, we reached 7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in Australia. It took us 47 days to get to our first million doses administered and just 9 days to reach our most recent million.
The milestone is testament to the hard work of those across the supply chain helping to get vaccines where they are needed, and safely administer them.
We have been focused on operationalising the recent advice from ATAGI, making Pfizer preferred for those under the age of 60.
For people who have had their first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine without any serious adverse effects the health advice is clear, you should still receive your second dose. This includes adults under 60 years of age.
This week, we have seen 221,384 Australians follow that advice, and turn up for their second dose of AstraZeneca.
Over 5.8 million people have now received a first dose of vaccine.
Thank you to everyone who has been vaccinated or made an appointment so far, and in particular, those large numbers of Australians who have turned up to receive their second dose.
Every day, we are vaccinating more Australians and continue to gain momentum in the total number of Australians vaccinated, particularly for those most at risk, with 68% of those over 70 having now received at least one dose of vaccine.
The week was not without challenges. As Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly declared seven NSW local government areas a COVID-19 hotspot on Wednesday 23 June, the Vaccine Operations Centre has been providing additional support, including coordinating roving clinics to provide additional vaccinations to those most at risk in residential settings.
As of today, 11,330,536 vaccine doses have been delivered to vaccination sites by the Australian Government.
Supplying and producing the vaccine
The ability to manufacture vaccines on-shore has been essential to the progress of our rollout and CSL has now manufactured and supplied over 10 million doses of vaccine for use in Australia.
Last week, 298,350 doses of Pfizer and 676,600 doses of AstraZeneca were released for distribution.
Over the coming days, the Therapeutic Goods Administration will conduct sample testing of 305,370 doses of Pfizer vaccine, along with 704,000 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 1,092,000 vaccine doses were delivered across Australia to metropolitan, rural and remote locations, along with 1965 deliveries of consumables.
- Ordering and Delivery. 99.9% of vaccine orders were completed last week with one order of Pfizer and three orders of AstraZeneca to be finalised today.
- Australia's assistance to the Pacific. This week another 70,000 doses were made available for distribution to the Pacific, with more than 430,000 doses now provided to DFAT. This will help our friends across the Pacific, including Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
Administering the vaccine
This week, 783,925 doses were administered across the country, taking the total number of doses administered above 7 million, to 7,374,666. It took 47 days to reach our first million doses of vaccine administered and 9 days for the most recent.
- Total sites. This week we had a total of 4,849 general practices, 136 Commonwealth Vaccination Clinics, 49 Pharmacies and 158 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services delivering vaccines, along with 830 state and territory sites, taking the total number of vaccination sites across the country to 6,022. In the coming week, we will have another 236 additional general practices administering AstraZeneca.
- Aged Care. With our vaccine workforce service providers, we continue to focus on those most at risk in our residential aged care facilities, and have now completed first dose visits to all 2,566 facilities (100%) and 2553 second dose visits (99.5%).
- Disability. We continue to ramp up our visits to disability residents with complex needs who require in-reach services. More than 11,400 people with a disability in a residential setting have now received at least one dose of vaccine.
