AstraZeneca jab lands
Australia’s first doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine have arrived.
A shipment of 300,000 doses landed in Sydney on Sunday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has hailed the delivery as a new milestone for Australia's vaccine rollout.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is preparing to batch test the shipment to ensure it meets quality standards.
Local bio-tech firm CSL will manufacture 50 million doses of the vaccine at its onshore facilities.
The government has also launched a second $31 million public information campaign on the COVID-19 vaccination scheme.
Earlier campaigns sought to inform the Australian community about the TGA's independent approval process.
“The advertising is important, so people understand how the vaccination program is operating, how they can find out when it will be their turn and answer any questions they have about the vaccines,” Health Minister Greg Hunt said.
Additionally, a special ‘myth-busting’ unit has been set up within Home Affairs in cooperation with the Health Department to stamp out “plainly ridiculous” misinformation.
“Some of these anti-vaxxers are peddling, frankly, false and clearly irresponsible views. Whether it is about 5G and Bill Gates and mind control – ludicrous, ludicrous things,” Mr Hunt said.
“We don't want to give too much air to some of the silliest ideas but we do want to provide public reassurance to combat in the marketplace on those ideas which would in any way falsely have some impact on public confidence.”