Australians won't have to visit the doctor's office to receive their COVID-19 vaccination, with the AstraZeneca jab set to be made available at thousands of pharmacies around the country.
Federal health minister Greg Hunt announced the $200 million scheme at a press conference this morning.
It will mean the COVID-19 shot will be available at more than 2000 individual sites Australia-wide, including GP offices, hospitals and pharmacies - a doubling of previous estimates.
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The Federal Government will offer all of Australia's 5,800 community pharmacies across the country the opportunity to participate in the coronavirus vaccine rollout.
"We will be inviting them, subject to meeting standards, to participate in the rollout, just as they do with flu," Mr Hunt said.
"They are experienced, they are trained in dispensing medicines... and that means more points of presence for Australians in terms of where they can receive their COVID-19 vaccine," Mr Hunt said.
The health minister said he hoped as many pharmacies as possible would take up the program, which is expected to start in May when phase 2A of the rollout commences.
This is when the vaccinations will become available to people aged over 50 and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, before rolling out to the general adult population.
Mr Hunt said the vaccination program remained on track to commence with the Pfizer shots for frontline workers in late February and a larger-scale AstraZeneca vaccine rollout from March.
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The fast-tracked timeline comes in defiance of a move by the European Union yesterday to block exports of the life-saving vaccinations, tightening the rules for exporting the vaccine amid a deepening dispute with drugmaker AstraZeneca.
It was confirmed yesterday that Australia's Foreign Minister Maurice Payne will now put pressure on the EU and the World Health Organisation in a bid to guarantee our vaccine supplies.
Mr Hunt said Australian diplomats were in talks with the World Health Organisation, the EU and drug makers and had been reassured that the current supply timeframes remained intact.
"The guidance from the EU is provisional and preliminary at this stage," Mr Hunt said.
"I will remain cautious, but the guidance is that the EU regulatory steps are not aimed at Australia, and are not expected to affect Australia."
He also noted that plans to produce 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on home soil should provide "very important comfort and news for Australians".
Globally, new coronavirus cases have fallen from an all-time high of 700,000 average cases a day on January 10 to 550,000 today.
The health minister described the turnaround as "the first significant signs of dropping global cases" in a positive for the world stage.
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