• All Australians will be offered the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 vaccination in 2021, according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
• The first shots are expected in a “few week’s time”, but a precise start date is yet to be announced.
• Morrison is expected to outline the rollout plan in Monday’s National Press Club address.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Every Australian will be given the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 vaccination by the end of the year, according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is set to outline the long-awaited program’s “aim” on Monday.

The Guardian reports Morrison will use his latest National Press Club address to say Australia’s vaccination program is still slated to start in “just a few weeks’ time.”

In response to reported supply chain issues and export concerns, Morrison will say the precise start date will depend on “developments overseas, which we will continue to monitor and update accordingly.”

The Prime Minister will also announce a further $1.9 billion to the rollout, boosting its total cost to $6.3 billion, with those funds largely directed to the nation-wide network of GPs and pharmacies charged with administering the shots.

Morrison is expected to describe the program as “one of the largest logistics exercises ever seen in Australia’s history,” with the nation eventually slated to take ownership of 140 vaccine million doses.

That figure includes the initial run of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, which are poised to form Australia’s first vaccination salvo, and the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which will be produced at biopharmaceutical company CSL’s Melbourne facility.

The National Press Club address is expected to repeat the assertion that vaccines won’t instantly minimise the risk of the virus. SBS reports international border closures, social distancing, and test-and-trace initiatives will be hailed as continuing measures against the pandemic and new, highly-transmissible strains of the virus.

The speech – which will reportedly highlight Australia’s economic recovery, while pouring cold water on the prospect of further JobKeeper extensions past March – will come one day after Perth enacted a five-day snap lockdown in response to a new case of COVID-19 within the community.

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