Up to 1.4 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be available in the first phase of the vaccine roll-out in Australia. The Australian Government has determined the priority for the vaccination program (click to view Australia's COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-out Strategy and COVID-19 Vaccination Policy) and identified the following populations for the first phase of the COVID-19 vaccines:
• Priority frontline health care workers
• Aged care and disability care residents
• Residential aged care and disability care workers
• Quarantine border workers
The Australian Government has decided the first groups to receive doses in Phase 1a will be frontline border and quarantine workers, as well as aged care residents and workers. This will be followed by frontline health workers (including clinical, medical students and administrative staff) most likely to be exposed to COVID-19 including:
• Frontline staff in facilities or services such as hospital emergency departments, COVID-19 and respiratory wards, Intensive Care Units and High-dependency Units
• Laboratory staff handling potentially infectious material
• Ambulance and paramedics service workers
• Workers at GP respiratory clinics
• Workers at COVID-19 testing facilities
The Phase 1a program is expected to take approximately six weeks. Other health care workers, including remaining Ramsay Health care workers, will follow in Phase 1b.