Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government is ready to roll out a booster program.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government is ready to roll out a booster program.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

“As people come to the six month-plus time frame since their second dose,Pfizer will be available,” he said.

But Mr Hunt said vulnerable aged care residents – many of whom were fully vaccinated more than six months ago – could get booster shots now,with some aged care providers already starting to roll out booster programs in their facilities.

“For aged care and disability,we already have sufficient support from ATAGI on the basis of their preliminary advice for that to commence. So that program,Victoria is looking to commence immediately,” he said.

“Subject to the consent process in aged care,and those disability residents who had early vaccinations,they’re free to proceed and we’re facilitating the arrangement of those[boosters].”

The Therapeutic Goods Administration provisionally approved a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine for Australians 18 years and older on Tuesday evening,to be available for people six months after their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

TGA boss Professor John Skerritt stressed people were considered fully vaccinated after two doses,and the booster was about providing additional protection.

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“It is important to reinforce that two doses of each of the approved vaccines do provide excellent protection against serious illness,hospitalisation and death,” he said.

“But we do know that boosters may give additional protection against mild COVID and they may have an impact on transmission. And we do know that in the elderly,and people of various shades of immunocompromised that an additional dose is particularly valuable,and it may provide reassurance for frontline health workers.”

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Pfizer will be available as a booster shot to people who have had any TGA-approved COVID-19 vaccine. Professor Skerritt said there was now robust research to show mixing and matching coronavirus vaccines provided good protection against the virus.

Pfizer is also going to be made available to pharmacies so they can be part of the booster program. Pharmacies are currently allowed to administer the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines,but neither company has applied for its vaccine to be used as a booster.

“Precisely because at this stage there hasn’t been an application and approval for Moderna as a booster,for the pharmacies that are operating the programs,we want to make sure that that’s available,” Mr Hunt said.

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Labor’s health spokesman Mark Butler welcomed the booster dose news but said the federal government needed to outline the plan for getting boosters to high priority groups including frontline health workers.

“These workers are working every day to keep us safe,in many cases,with exposure to the COVID virus in the course of their work,and many of them received their second shot of the original vaccine well more than seven months ago already,” he said on Wednesday.

“So where’s the clear,urgent plan to provide them ... with the extra protection the booster shots will give them?”

When asked about the plan for the booster rollout,Mr Hunt said the vaccine rollout would continue “in exactly the same way”.

“We have the supplies,we have the distribution mechanisms,we’ll just work with the states,the GPs,the pharmacies,the Commonwealth vaccination clinics and the Indigenous vaccination clinics to ensure everything’s in place,” he said.

with Lisa Visentin

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