Australian regulators today granted provisional approval to vaccine against COVID-19, of AstraZeneca/University of Oxford, bolstering the national vaccination program that the country plans to launch next week.
This approval comes at a time when the country's second most populous state, Victoria, is approaching the possible end of the five-day quarantine it imposed on its citizens to halt the spread of a recent outbreak of the new coronavirus.
The Australian federal government has announced that it has ordered a sufficient quantity of AstraZeneca/University of Oxford vaccines, which will most likely be manufactured in Australia, to cover the country's population of 25 million people.
It has also ordered several doses of the vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech, which is produced abroad, for one fifth of the population.
“Australia now has two safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19,” the prime minister said in a televised press conference. Scott Morrison.
The chief physician Paul Kelly had previously acknowledged concerns about the relatively low efficacy, around 62%, of the AstraZeneca/University of Oxford vaccine, admitting that it may not be sufficient to achieve herd immunity.
The first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has an efficacy rate of 95% and has already been approved by the country's regulatory authorities, arrived yesterday, Monday, in Australia, and authorities are planning the first vaccinations for February 22.
The first batch of the AstraZeneca/University of Oxford vaccine, which will be produced overseas, is expected to arrive in Australia in March. The bulk of this vaccine will then be manufactured in Australia, which, according to the authorities, will protect the country from excessive demand abroad.
Although other countries, including USA and the Britain, While other countries rushed to approve COVID-19 vaccines, Australia waited until it had more comprehensive trial data before granting provisional approval.
Meanwhile, Victoria, home to a quarter of the country's population, is set to end the strict lockdown imposed on its residents tomorrow, Wednesday, according to authorities, as the previous 24 hours recorded just two new cases of the new coronavirus.
“This strategy is working,” Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters. “We are in a good position to be able to make changes tomorrow night. The next 24 hours will be critical.”.
Victoria was imposed third lockdown on Friday following an outbreak of the virus linked to a quarantine hotel involving 19 cases.
The lifting of the lockdown means that the tennis tournament Australian Open, which is held in the state capital, Melbourne, it will be able to start accepting spectators again, something that was prohibited during the lockdown.
At the same time, the New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, recorded its 30th consecutive day without any cases of domestic transmission.
Australia has recorded a total of fewer than 29,000 cases of the new coronavirus and 909 deaths from COVID-19, as The closure of borders and rapid contact tracing systems have helped to keep numbers relatively low compared to other developed countries.
