Australia Secures Additional 20 Million Pfizer Vaccine Doses
Australia Secures Additional 20 Million Pfizer Vaccine Doses
(Bloomberg) -- The Australian government said it has secured an additional 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, amid concerns about blood clotting associated with AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 shot.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the extra supplies meant Australia would have access to 40 million Pfizer doses this year.
The government is guiding against giving the AstraZeneca shot to people under the age of 50 following warnings of a link to a rare type of blood clot by the European Medicines Agency.
Locally made AstraZeneca jabs form the backbone of Australia’s vaccination effort and the new guidance has heightened concerns that the rollout won’t be completed this year. About 1 million people in the nation of 25.8 million have received a first dose. The main opposition Labor party says that falls some 3 million short of the government’s promised timeline.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said that, including AstraZeneca shots, Pfizer, Novavax and the Covax facility, Australia has a total available pool of 170 million doses.
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