• Australia will receive an extra 10 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Thursday.
• The extra doses will bring Australia’s total vaccine arsenal to 150 million doses.
• Phase one of Australia’s vaccine rollout, which will rely on the Pfizer shots, is on track to begin this month.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Australia will receive a further 10 million dozes of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, doubling the nation’s stockpile of the highly effective formula just weeks before the COVID-19 immunisation program kicks off.

Speaking in Canberra on Thursday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the new boost builds Australia’s total vaccine arsenal to 150 million doses.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said Australia’s original contract with the German pharmaceutical giant included a clause permitting access to further doses, which was activated when the vaccine received approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) last month.

Hunt added that the first stage of Australia’s vaccine rollout, which will provide frontline healthcare workers and at-risk Australians with the Pfizer formulation, remains on track to begin at the end of February.

Clinical trials have shown the Pfizer vaccine to be 95% effective against COVID-19. The Pfizer vaccine is administered in two doses, meaning 10 million Australians are in line to benefit from that protection.

AstraZeneca, which guaranteed Australia access to 53.8 million vaccine doses, is also guaranteed to deliver those shots, pending a green light from the TGA.

Those vaccines are slated to roll out from early March, Hunt said.

Today’s announcement also brought confirmation the federal government intends to provide free vaccines to all visa holders living in Australia.

“That means the Government will provide COVID-19 vaccinations free to all visa holders in Australia,” Hunt said.

“And this will include refugees, asylum seekers, temporary protection visa holders, and those on bridging visas.”

People in detention and those whose visas have been cancelled will also be offered the jab, with Hunt saying the goal was to ensure the “maximum possible coverage in Australia.”

Australia has also penned a deal for 50 million Novavax vaccines, on top of an agreement with the COVAX Facility, permitting the purchase of 25 million extra doses should they be required.

The news comes just hours after Victoria reintroduced coronavirus restrictions on gatherings in homes and workplace capacity limits following the state’s first case of COVID-19 community transmission in weeks.

Remarking on the pandemic’s continual impact at home and abroad, Hunt said “the vaccine rollout is the next critical step in protecting Australians.”

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