The prime minister also confirmed vaccines will be available to all visa holders in the country,including those on temporary protection visas,asylum seekers and bridging visa holders.

“People currently residing in detention facilities will also be eligible,including those whose visas have been cancelled. So,that’s making sure that there is the maximum possible coverage in Australia,” he said.

Australia initially had an agreement to purchase 10 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine,which has since proved to have an efficacy rate of about 95 per cent.

As well as the 20 million Pfizer doses,Australia will get 53.8 million doses of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine,50 million of which will be manufactured by CSL in Melbourne. Australia is also purchasing 51 million doses of the Novavax vaccine. Both those vaccines were secured in earlier purchase agreements.

Mr Hunt said Pfizer committed to providing 80,000 doses a week in the first few weeks,but beyond that numbers have not yet been confirmed.

“They’re still looking to provide advice in the middle of the month globally,” he said.

There has been a “significant improvement” in Europe with the flow of both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines,Mr Hunt said.

“We’ll receive guidance on the time frames from the company over the coming weeks and months. But the guarantee is that all of those doses will be here during the course of 2021.”

To bolster Australia’s vaccine system,legislation was passed on Thursday making it a legal requirement for all vaccinations,including COVID-19 vaccines,to be recorded on the Australian Immunisation Register.

Previously,it was up to vaccination providers to decide whether they would report vaccines,including those given through school-based programs and the annual influenza vaccines.

The change is aimed at helping the government keep track of the country’s COVID-19 vaccine program.

Opposition health spokesman Mark Butler said Australians needed more information about how many vaccines were arriving in the country,and when.

“We’re into February already,and we need to start to get this detail from the government,” he said.

“It’s not just me asking these questions,it’s patient groups and GP groups that are still not clear about how they are going to manage this extraordinary logistical challenge we have .”

The rush to secure vaccines comes as humanitarian groups on Thursday night launched amultimillion-dollar appeal to ensure more vaccines were rolled out to poorer countries and vulnerable communities,as concern grew that richer nations were keeping supplies for themselves.

The overwhelming majority of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered so far have been delivered in high-income countries,according to a new study released by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Nearly 70 per cent of vaccine doses administered so far have occurred in the world’s 50 wealthiest countries,while only 0.1 per cent of vaccine doses have been administered in the 50 poorest countries.