• Australians over the age of 50 won’t be eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine until the end of the year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced at a press conference on Thursday night.
• Arrivals from India will also be reduced by 30% following catastrophic case numbers reported by the country.
• The changes were announced following the second emergency meeting on Thursday designed to get Australia’s vaccine rollout back on track.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Australians over the age of 50 will no longer be able to receive the Pfizer vaccine and arrivals from India will be cut by 30%, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Thursday night at a press conference.

Under the new plan, people over 50 will get access to an AstraZeneca vaccination sooner, with the Pfizer vaccine to be prioritised for younger critical workers and vulnerable aged care residents yet to be immunised.

Health Department Secretary Brendan Murphy said at a press conference held after the cabinet meeting on Thursday that the Pfizer vaccine would be used only for people aged under 50, with few exceptions, once all residential aged care patients were vaccinated.

“Pfizer is now restricted to those under 50 until we get more Pfizer supplies later in the year,” he said.

The reset follows the second emergency cabinet meeting held this week around Australia’s vaccine rollout; part of a new, twice-weekly ‘war room’ meeting designed to help the government resolve the mounting delays that have stymied the country’s plans to fully vaccinate the public.

At the press conference Morrison said around 60,000 Australians were being vaccinated daily and that over half of the vaccinations done in the country have now been done by GPs.

He said the national cabinet had agreed to expand state vaccination hubs and open them to all Australians eligible for a vaccine.

Aged and disability care workers, critical workers, healthcare staff and others in phases 1a and 1b will now be able to receive Pfizer vaccines through state clinics as well as Commonwealth respiratory clinics.

This announcement follows the release of a survey this week by the United Workers Union (UWU) which found 85% of aged care workers hadn’t yet received their vaccination.

And from May 3 everyone in phase 1a and 1b will be able to get vaccinated with Pfizer in state-run hubs and Commonwealth respiratory clinics.

GP clinics in turn will receive more AstraZeneca doses, and from May 17 anyone over 50 who wants one of those vaccines will be able to get immunised through primary care networks.

Morrison also announced Australia would be significantly curtailing the number of travellers arriving from India and other countries with rising COVID-19 numbers.

With India reporting more than 314,000 coronavirus cases on Thursday, the most ever recorded by a single country, the Prime Minister said the government will cut the number of arrivals allowed in from India by 30%, and would consider similar restrictions from other high-risk countries and strict limits on people travelling to countries with large outbreaks.

The Prime Minister said this would help manage the growing number of COVID-19 cases in hotel quarantine.

“These are difficult decisions we’ve had to make but the increasing risk we’ve seen from some countries, we believe necessitates managing that risk in the best way possible,” Morrison said.

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