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Canberra, July 9 (IANS) Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday announced that 4.5 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine due to arrive in the country in September could now be available in August.
Up to 1 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine will arrive in Australia every week from July 19, up from about 350,000 per week currently.
"We've done a lot of catch up in particular over the month of June, and that's seen us now hitting the levels we need to get this job done and have everyone offered a dose by the end of the year," Xinhua news agency quoted Morrison as saying to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The deal will increase the number of Australians who can get inoculated during the winter months and will help fight the fresh ongoing outbreak in Sydney.
"We've also got 1,300 additional GPs (general practitioners) coming on stream this month, to deliver those Pfizer doses that are coming through," Morrison said.
As of Thursday about 10 per cent of Australians over the age of 16 had been fully vaccinated, with two doses of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine, which were approved for use in the country by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) .
In June, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ATAGI) advised that the AstraZeneca vaccine be administered to people aged 60 and over, rather than those aged 50 and over as was previously recommended, due to the very rare TTS (thrombocytopenia syndrome) condition, which put pressure on the rollout.
As of Friday, there have been 30,905 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Australia, while the death toll stood at 910.
On Friday morning, the health department in Australia's most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), reported 44 new locally acquired cases, two days after it announced extending the two-week lockdown by until July 16.
--IANS
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