Australia will abolish the Vaxzevria vaccine from the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca by the end of 2021, said the head of the government’s COVID-19 task force, Lieutenant General John Fruen.
According to him, the vaccine “AstraZeneca” will be phased out of the national vaccination program and will be discontinued in Australia, as its use is prohibited for people under 60 years of age due to side effects.
“Everyone who still qualifies for the AstraZeneca vaccine will receive it by the fourth quarter of this year, and more Pfizer and Moderna products will be added to the national program,” Fruen told reporters online.
The head of the plant also noted that from October 2021, the authorities plan to inject up to 2.3 million people a week with the drug of the American company “Pfizer”, developed jointly with the German “BioNTech”.
The vaccine from the US company Moderna is expected to arrive in Australia in the second half of September, and between 87,000 and 125,000 Australians will receive it each week in October.
Since the spread of the new coronavirus in Australia, just over 30,000 cases of infection have been identified, with 910 patients dying. In March 2020, the country’s authorities closed their entry and exit borders and imposed strict sanitary restrictions, which were lifted last July. Australia’s state border remains closed by decision of the government.
On February 22, 2021, a vaccination campaign began in Australia. To date, more than 6.86 million (out of 25.6 million) people in the country have received at least one dose of vaccine, and about 720,000 Australians have received full vaccination.
