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- Victorians aged under 50 will soon be able to access the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination after the State Government extended its rollout
- Around 400,000 Victorians will be able to access the jab from next Monday, including frontline workers, aged care nurses and those in the disability sector
- The decision to advance the timeline follows a minor outbreak of COVID-19 within Melbourne, with a man testing positive for the virus earlier this week
- The man contracted COVID-19 while staying in hotel quarantine in South Australia, and no new cases of the virus have been detected since
- Meanwhile, the Federal Government has secured another batch of COVID-19 vaccines after signing an agreement with drugmaker Moderna
Victorians aged under 50 will soon be able to access the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination after the State Government extended its rollout.
Around 400,000 Victorians will be able to access the jab from next Monday, including frontline workers, aged care nurses and those working in the disability sector.
Acting Premier James Merlino made the announcement on Friday, stating more vaccines had been made available.
“We’ve got additional Pfizer from the Commonwealth […] and that’s why we’re able to open that up to eligible people under 50 from Monday,” he explained.
“The more supply that we have from the Commonwealth, the more that we can do,” the Premier added.
Other frontline workers in Victoria, such as taxi-drivers, will also be eligible for the Pfizer jab from May 24.
The State Government’s decision to advance the timeline comes after a minor outbreak of COVID-19 within Melbourne earlier this week.
A Victorian man tested positive for the virus on Tuesday, having contracted COVID-19 while in hotel quarantine in South Australia.
No new cases have been detected in the community since then, with tens of thousands of tests carried out in the wider Melbourne community.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has also secured another batch of COVID-19 vaccines for Australia after signing an agreement with drugmaker Moderna.
The agreement was announced yesterday, with 25 million doses of the biotech company’s vaccine to be sent to Australia across 2021 and 2022.
The Moderan vaccine will be used alongside the Pfizer jab in vaccinating the majority of Australians aged under 50.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, which was set to be used on most residents, was ruled out for under-50s due to rare blood clotting risks.
