CANBERRA, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Australians under the age of 40 could become eligible for Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccines around September or October, the head of the rollout has revealed.
Lt. Gen. John Frewen, who heads the federal government's COVID-19 vaccination task force, on Tuesday met with federal and state health authorities to "war game" problems with the vaccine program, the early stages of which were plagued by supply issues.
He revealed that the government expects to have enough doses of the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines to make them available to people under the age of 40 from September to October.
"On the current supply forecasts that we have, I think that's when we are getting closer to having greater choice," Frewen told reporters.
"But I won't tie myself to specific dates at this stage."
Frewen said that younger Australians could be given a choice about which mRNA vaccine they receive when there is enough supply available.
"When we have adequate supplies I think that's a logical step, but for now we have to prioritize because the supplies of one of the vaccines is limited," he said.
As of Tuesday there had been about 8.4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in Australia, including approximately 8,000 younger Australians who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine since Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced in late June that people under 40 could consult their doctor "if they wish to go and speak to their doctor and have access to the AstraZeneca vaccine."
"AstraZeneca is open to under 40s with informed consent with their GPs," Frewen said.
"We're seeing demand right now in that group of people to take AstraZeneca now rather than wait for an alternate later in the year."
As of Tuesday afternoon, there had been 30,832 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, and the numbers of locally and overseas acquired cases in the last 24 hours were 19 and 10 respectively, according to the latest figures from the Department of Health. And the number of locally acquired cases in the last seven days was 203.
