Greater Sydney residents able to have 10 visitors plus under-12s for next three days; air crew quarantine in the spotlight; Sydney test still undecided. Follow all the latest news and updates, live
9.19pm GMT
Who will get the Pfizer and who will get the AstraZeneca vaccine? (Noting that neither has yet been approved by the TGA in Australia.)
Hunt:
The allocation will be determined by the expert medical panel determined by the suitability of the vaccines for populations. For example, with the flu vaccine, we have had in the past few years different vaccines for older Australians as opposed to the general population. That is an assessment the vaccines medical expert panel led by Professor Murphy is working on and right through theChristmas and New Year break and they’ll continue to provide that advice.
9.16pm GMT
The health minister, Greg Hunt, is on the ABC right now talking vaccines.
He’s asked why the vaccine won’t be distributed before March, if “we are on track and ahead of schedule”, as Hunt says.
It is important to have the assessment and there are three big parts to this. There is the assessment, which relies on the data from the vaccine companies. There is the production, which relies on them being on schedule. And then there is the shipping and distribution. All of those are on track. And we’re ahead of schedule. But our whole approach has been to provide confidence by underpromising and over delivering.
We’ll set the March expectation and obviously we work to not just achieve that but put ourselves in an even stronger position but there is no country to the best of my knowledge to give a general population approval and there are daily deaths of thousands of cases in the US and the United Kingdom.
Continue reading…Greater Sydney residents able to have 10 visitors plus under-12s for next three days; air crew quarantine in the spotlight; Sydney test still undecided. Follow all the latest news and updates, live 9.19pm GMTWho will get the Pfizer and who will get the AstraZeneca vaccine? (Noting that neither has yet been approved by the TGA in Australia.)Hunt:The allocation will be determined by the expert medical panel determined by the suitability of the vaccines for populations. For example, with the flu vaccine, we have had in the past few years different vaccines for older Australians as opposed to the general population. That is an assessment the vaccines medical expert panel led by Professor Murphy is working on and right through theChristmas and New Year break and they’ll continue to provide that advice. 9.16pm GMTThe health minister, Greg Hunt, is on the ABC right now talking vaccines. He’s asked why the vaccine won’t be distributed before March, if “we are on track and ahead of schedule”, as Hunt says. It is important to have the assessment and there are three big parts to this. There is the assessment, which relies on the data from the vaccine companies. There is the production, which relies on them being on schedule. And then there is the shipping and distribution. All of those are on track. And we’re ahead of schedule. But our whole approach has been to provide confidence by underpromising and over delivering.We’ll set the March expectation and obviously we work to not just achieve that but put ourselves in an even stronger position but there is no country to the best of my knowledge to give a general population approval and there are daily deaths of thousands of cases in the US and the United Kingdom. Continue reading…