• Australians over the age of 50 will now be offered the vaccine after the National Cabinet met on Monday to salvage the chaotic vaccine rollout.
• Australia is still running toward an October deadline for the country to be fully vaccinated however currently only 1.6 million vaccines have been administered.
• Prime Minister Scott Morrison said GPs will continue to be the primary delivery mode for the vaccine roll out, with states and territories to consider options to supplement rollout through expanded state vaccination centres.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Australians over the age of 50 will now be offered the vaccine after the National Cabinet on Monday agreed to bring forward the next stage of the country’s rollout.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed the changes in a statement on Monday night following an emergency meeting, saying that urgent changes to the current vaccine rollout were required to ensure Australians in top priority groups would get vaccinated.

“National Cabinet agreed in-principle to a series of changes to the Australian COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy that will be put forward for approval at the next meeting of National Cabinet including options to bring forward the commencement of vaccinations for over 50-year-olds under the Australian COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy priority group 2a,” Morrison said in the statement.

“And the readiness of more state and territory-operated vaccination sites including mass vaccination sites, as vaccine supplies increase.”

As a result of Australia’s chaotic vaccine rollout, with multiple shipments of the vaccine from Europe cancelled and delayed and the government well behind its original goal of immunising 4 million people by the end of March, the country’s state and medical leaders will now meet twice weekly in a big to salvage the coronavirus vaccine program.

Morrison said that in the meeting the cabinet reinforced GPs will continue to be the primary model of the vaccine roll out, with states and territories to consider options to supplement rollout through expanded state vaccination centres.

To date, almost 1.6 million COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Australia, with a new deadline of the end of October set for all Australians to be vaccinated.

However modelling by policy think tank The McKell Institute projects that to meet this deadline Australia’s vaccine program would need to progress at 15 times its current rate.

Its research showed that between 1.47 million and 1.77 million doses would need to be administered weekly, up from the current rate of 127,000 a week.

Modelling by the McKell Institute around the cost of Australia’s vaccine program delays found it could cost the economy up to $1.4 billion.

The number of administration sites continues to expand with 4,500 general practices, general practice respiratory centres and Aboriginal health services now administering COVID-19 vaccinations.

Morrison also said in the statement that National Cabinet had received detailed health briefings on the rollout, including one on the blood clots associated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

“The priority of the Australian COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy remains to vaccinate vulnerable populations under priority groups 1a and 1b,” he said.

“The medical advice remains that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is safe and recommended for Australians over 50 years old and all states will continue to be prioritised AstraZeneca for Australians over 50 years old.”

Morrison said the government would continue to finalise the vaccination of residential aged care facility (RACF) residents using the Pfizer vaccine.

National Cabinet will meet again on Thursday 22 April 2021.

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