By Elishya Perera
SYDNEY, Australia (CWBN)_ Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters today (Nov 11) that the federal government’s vaccination timeline is on track and that Australians could start receiving vaccines from March next year.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said on Monday (Nov 9) that their experimental vaccine may be 90% effective at preventing COVID-19. However, more data is required to prove its efficacy.
The Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at minus 70 degrees since it uses genetic information to tell the body how to develop an immune response to the coronavirus.
Accordingly, Therapeutic Goods Administration Head in Australia John Skerritt said that cold chain logistics would be used to transport the Pfizer vaccine. “They’re very sophisticated eskies which require dry ice. They actually last for 14 days and they can be refilled twice,” he said.
According to Professor Skerritt, the two refills allow a month and a half of storage without the need to connect to power.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has given the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca candidates pre-approval, provided they meet stringent final checks, and it is reported that Australia has a deal for 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, while the country will manufacture 30 million of the Oxford vaccine, and a further 3.8 million will be imported.
Australia considers reopening borders
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday (Nov 10) that the government is considering opening its borders to some Asian countries including Taiwan, Japan, Singapore as well as parts of China.
However, entry from the United States or Europe was ruled out.
“I think we proceed cautiously… The situation in Europe and the United States is awful. And obviously, that presents greater risk for people coming in from those parts of the world to Australia,” Morrison said.
“We … are looking at what alternative arrangements could be had to channel visitors through appropriate quarantine arrangements for low-risk countries,” he added.
After 111 days of home confinement and travel restrictions, the state of Victoria, Australia’s Coronavirus epicentre, reopened on 27th October as the state reported no new COVID-19 cases and has continued to report zero new infections for a dozen days.
Moreover, Australia was on track to record its fourth day without a locally acquired case as of mid-day today.
According to the Department of Health, the country has reported more than 27,000 COVID-19 infections and 907 deaths thus far.
Edited by Kaveesha Fernando
