Health Minister Greg Hunt says a third COVID-19 vaccine, the Moderna vaccine, will soon be approved in Australia.
The vaccine will likely receive approval within two weeks, and rollout will begin mid-September.
Moderna is an mRNA vaccine, similar to Pfizer.
Australia has already purchased 25 million doses of Moderna, expecting to use 10 million as primary vaccines and 15 million as booster shots.
“Best advice is that we’re likely to receive approval from the TGA [Therapeutic Goods Administration] — but it is in their hands — within the next two weeks,” Hunt says.
“And that we would receive a million doses during the course of September, and then three million in each of October, November and December.”
In the US, over 140 million doses of the Moderna vaccine have been administered, after receiving emergency authorisation in December 2020.
Collating data since they began vaccine rollouts, Moderna has stated that six months after a second dose, the vaccine had an impressive 93 per cent efficacy against COVID-19.
They added that it was 98 per cent effective against severe cases of the virus, and 100 per cent effective against deaths from COVID-19.
All of the mosquitos in my yard just received the Moderna vaccine.
— Danny’s Engineportal.com (@engineportal) August 5, 2021
Just got my first dose of Moderna!! Big boobie vaccine!
— 🏳️🌈🎀r o s e🎀🏳️🌈 (@biscuit_roses) August 3, 2021
Moderna is also easier to store than Pfizer, not requiring the super cold temperatures, -75 degrees Celsius, necessary for Pfizer.
Reported side effects of Moderna, so far, have been minor. They include pain in the arm the shot was administered in, as well as tiredness, muscle pain, fever and chills.
Hunt says that with the additional vaccine, Australia’s weekly vaccination rates will reach the millions.
“What we do know is that the capacity is now fully established to deliver over two million doses per week of AstraZeneca plus Pfizer and Moderna, as supplies become available,” he explained.
“As the Pfizer numbers grow from one to two million per week, and as Moderna grows to 700,000 per week, we will be able to deliver well over two million doses per week if there is demand.”
NSW recorded 11,327 vaccinations in the 24 hrs to 8pm last night. 283 locally acquired cases of the virus were detected in the state.
