Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt says Australians can expect COVID-19 vaccines within the first months of 2021 if they’re proven to be safe.
Australia is awaiting the results of clinical trials of possible COVID-19 vaccines being conducted at the University of Oxford in the UK and the University of Queensland.
“Subject to the clinical trials and subject to the effectiveness approvals and subject to the safety regulator and our medical expert panel, we’re looking to receive the first of those vaccines in the first quarter of next year,” Hunt said in A Current Affair at the Nine Network.
“We’ll make them available on a free and voluntary basis to the whole of the Australian population.”
Australians will be among the first in the world to get the coronavirus vaccine under a $1.7 billion agreement between the Australian Government and pharmaceutical companies.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Monday that vaccines would be made available throughout next year if trials are successful.
“Australia needs some hope today…Particularly in Victoria, they need some hope today. And so that is what we’re here to deliver today,” Morrison said.
“Today, we take another significant step to protect the health of Australians against the coronavirus pandemic.”
Mr. Morrison said the vaccines would first need to be proven safe and effective, and meet all necessary regulatory requirements.
One of the deals is with the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca; the second with University of Queensland and CSL.
Nearly 85 million doses would be manufactured in Melbourne. Morrison called it “a sovereign vaccine plan”.
The plan puts Australia among the first in the world to get a vaccine, if one is discovered, Mr Morrison said.
The very best case scenario would see 3.8 million doses of the University of Oxford vaccine be available in January and February next year.
Morrison said the two vaccine deals struck by his government are “the two best prospects” on the table. But he has also urged caution over the delivery of a potential vaccine.
“Lockdowns and borders are not signs of success in dealing with COVID-19,” he said, underlining the critical importance of a vaccine program.
He also hinted at building “an integrated tracing capability” right across the country, to counter outbreaks.
Mr. Morrison said New South Wales was “the gold standard” other states and territories had to follow and live up to.
Last month, the Australian government signed a deal with British pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca to secure 25 million doses of the Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine.
At the time, Morrison said at the time it was “one of the most promising and most advanced vaccine developments anywhere in the world”.
Known as the Oxford Vaccine, because it has been developed by Oxford University, the shot is actually called AZD1222. It is adapted from a common cold virus found in chimpanzees. Up to 25 million batches of the vaccine will be made available for free.
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