“We’ve been encouraged by the 4000 GPs who have now received vaccination approval, which will come online as vaccine supplies increase to 400,000 doses over the coming weeks,” Professor Kidd said. “The government had initially hoped at least 2000 practices would participate and we are delighted this has grown to over 4000.”According to a report in The Australian, Sydney GP, Nicole Fogarty, said her clinic was “ready and raring” for the vaccine rollout to begin at 9am today with almost 1000 patients booked to receive the vaccine in coming weeks.“We received our first batch of doses on Friday and we feel like we’re on target and prepared for Monday,” she told The Australian. “We were taken by surprise last week by the online booking system (HealthEngine), but we’re fortunate that we’ve got a strong IT team, so we could set up a fantastic online booking system that we can control and manage.” Dr Fogarty said the clinic was “not worried about the current levels of supply”.Still, there are concerns over the number of vaccine allocations, with some clinics receiving only 50 doses a week for their most elderly and unwell patients.But Professor Kidd played down any concerns, saying, “until the CSL facility comes online, we’re dependent on the shipments which have arrived from overseas”.NED-3453-First-GPs-AstrazenecaTGA APPROVES LOCALLY-MADE ASTRAZENECAFifty million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be manufactured in Melbourne following approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.The TGA approved the manufacture of the vaccine in Australia on Sunday in a “critical and very exciting milestone in Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic”.The vaccine is being manufactured at two sites in suburban Melbourne; CSL-Behring Australia in Broadmeadows is making the active raw vaccine material, while the final doses are being manufactured and vials filled and packaged at CSL company Seqirus in Parkville.Quality control testing of the raw material and product is also being carried out in these facilities.The Australian government has purchased 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, to be manufactured on its behalf by CSL.Each batch of vaccine supplied will undergo a TGA batch release, which involves a review of documents describing how it was made, tested, shipped and stored as well as testing by the TGA’s in-house lab, to ensure it’s been made according to required standards.The TGA is expected to receive the final batch release documentation from AstraZeneca immediately, with the first batches released in the next few days.If the individual batches meet TGA’s batch release requirements, the vaccines will form the mainstay of Australia‘s COVID-19 vaccination program over the coming months, complementing the supply of the imported vaccines.When you can get the COVID vaccine?WILD WEATHER AFFECTS ROLLOUTFurther delays are expected to COVID-19 vaccine deliveries across NSW as wild weather and heavy rainfall continues to lash the state. A natural disaster has been declared in parts of NSW as authorities prepare to begin phase 1b of the vaccine rollout Deputy chief medical officer Michael Kidd said the distributors were doing everything they could to ensure timely deliveries. “But there will be some inevitable delays due to the weather,” Professor Kidd said on Sunday. “Safety has to come first for the staff, patients and people delivering the vaccines.”Professor Kidd said the scheduled deliveries were ready to go as soon as the roads were safe and general practices were able to reopen to receive the deliveries. He was unable to provide details on the number of clinics or deliveries affected.“We have to wait and see what happens with the weather over the coming days.” But Professor Kidd said he remained confident they would meet their rollout targets under phase 1b. More than 750,000 people had already checked their eligibility via the health department’s website on Wednesday and Thursday last week. “(Monday) is an important day in the history of the pandemic in Australia,” Professor Kidd said. An extra 100 respiratory clinics have been enlisted to help doctors with the rollout and online bookings have been swamped with almost a million people logging on to the government site.Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt said that was an indication of vaccine confidence. “We have been heartened by the early response that we’ve seen from the public this week,” he said. “It shows that Australians do want to be vaccinated, they want to do their part to help get us back to a COVID normal, while also protecting themselves and their loved ones.”Dr Karen Price from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners said Friday’s round table with Prime Minister Scott Morrison “acknowledged the pain and suffering general practice had been through” to get the rollout going.“He made some commitments to developing a better forward estimate, to guarantee 12 weeks supply ahead so we can match out bookings to supply,” Dr Price said. Over the coming months, more than 4000 locations will be offering the vaccine and Mr Hunt asked for patience. “This is a marathon, not a sprint,” he said. Phase 1b will involve as many as six million people and will begin with a release of 250,000 doses next week for the general public.QUARANTINE ‘MAY BE REDUCED’Vaccinated Australians may be allowed to quarantine at home by the end of the year in a major overhaul of the system.Department of Health Secretary Brendan Murphy has indicated the rules around quarantining could change as more Australians get vaccinated.“We might think about reducing the length of quarantine or more home quarantine particularly for vaccinated people. Our risk tolerance will change over the second half of this year,” he told Sky News on Sunday.He said the blocking of vaccine supplies in Europe would not impact the October deadline to have all Australians vaccinated because the nation had always been “mostly dependent” on the domestic supply.QLD-NZ TRAVEL BUBBLE OPEN Queensland’s chief health officer has approved flights from New Zealand to resume from Saturday night.The one-way travel bubble was paused due to concerns about community transmission in New Zealand.Dr Jeannette Young said those in mandatory quarantine due to restrictions on flights from New Zealand may leave quarantine at one minute past midnight if they have a negative COVID test result.Direct passenger flights between New Zealand and Tasmania will also resume for the first time in more than 20 years. Air New Zealand announced on Friday it would run two flights a week from Auckland to Hobart, on Thursdays and Sundays, once quarantine-free travel is available.– with Melissa Iaria/NewsWireNED-3467 Travel Bubbles
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