Approximately 44 per cent of Australian children 12 to 15 years of age have had their first COVID-19 vaccine dose in the first three weeks of that age group becoming eligible to be vaccinated.
This equates to close to 550,000 vaccine doses being administered to 12 to 15-year-olds since the vaccination rollout was opened to them on 13 September 2021.
Over this period of time, 3.3 per cent of Australian children aged 12 to 15 have received both doses for maximum protection against COVID-19.
In other developments, NSW and the ACT are expected to reach the very important milestone of 70 per cent of their population aged 16 and over being double vaccinated in coming days.
Modelling from the Doherty Institute has indicated we can start to put lockdowns behind us when 70 per cent of Australians aged 16 and over – across the country and in each state and territory – have had both vaccine doses.
Over the past seven days, more than 1.9 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered across the country – bringing our total to almost 29 million.
More than 90 per cent of Australians aged 50 or over have had a first dose, a figure that rises to more than 95 per cent for people aged 70 and over.
Importantly, for maximum protection, more than 73 per cent of Australians aged 50 or over have had their second dose, a percentage that rises to approximately 80 per cent for people aged 70 and over.
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 19,464,500 doses of vaccine for use in Australia.
Last week, 1,364,220 doses of Pfizer, 607,800 doses of Moderna and 957,100 doses of AstraZeneca were released for distribution.
Over the coming days, the TGA will conduct sample testing of 1,585,350 doses of Pfizer vaccine, along with 628,400 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 2,936,490 vaccine doses were delivered across Australia to metropolitan, rural and remote locations, along with 5,539 deliveries of consumables.
- Ordering and Delivery. 99 per cent 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 308,000 doses were made available for distribution to the Pacific, with more than 3,550,120 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, 1,962,930 doses were administered across the country, taking the total number of doses administered 28.7 million. It took 45 days to reach our first million doses of vaccine administered and 4 days for the most recent.
- Total sites. This week we had a total of more than 5,500 general practices, 137 Commonwealth Vaccination Clinics, 3,329 Community Pharmacies and 167 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services delivering vaccines, along with 892 state and territory sites, taking the total number of vaccination sites across the country to over 10,000. Next week, we will have 22 additional general practices administering for Vaxveria (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 and second dose visits to all facilities in Australia. Nationally, 99.4 per cent of aged care workers are now vaccinated with their first dose and 84 per cent with their second dose.
- Disability. We continue to ramp up our visits to disability residents with complex needs who require in-reach services. 20,795 people with a disability in a residential setting or 76.2 per cent have now received at least one dose of vaccine. Over 68 per cent of NDIS participants have also received a first dose, and 50 per cent are fully vaccinated.
