Australia’s vaccine rollout is to be further delayed after local regulators advised limiting use of the AstraZeneca shot – the country’s main vaccine.
On Thursday, the government said it now recommended that people aged under 50 get the Pfizer jab over AstraZeneca’s.
It follows restrictions in other nations, after Europe’s drug regulator found a rare blood clot risk linked to the vaccine.
The move is likely to delay a goal to vaccinate all Australians this year.
The country is already running about 85% behind schedule – it has inoculated about one million of its almost 26 million people so far.
But Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia could afford the delay because it had almost no community transmission of Covid-19.
On Friday, he announced that Australia had doubled its Pfizer contract to 40 million doses.
But Australia so far has only received about one million Pfizer shots – with the rest to arrive “by the end of the year”, the government has said.
Australia also has a contract for 51 million Novovax vaccines, but it is yet to be approved by regulators.
Mr Morrison strongly urged people aged over 50 to continue with their vaccine, saying any risk was very rare.
“If an outbreak were to happen again… you would be putting yourself at risk if you didn’t get the vaccine, because you would be exposing yourself to the more likely event of a Covid-contracted condition that could result in serious illness,” he said.
Critics of Australia’s rollout have condemned the government for “putting all their eggs in one basket” with AstraZeneca.
The setback upends timelines for potential border reopenings, overseas travel and economic recovery.
