TGA approves Pfizer boosters for Australians, rollout to begin within weeks

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has given provisional approval for Pfizer booster shots to be administered to Australians aged 18 and over with the rollout expected to begin next month.

The booster shots are to be given at least six months after the second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, including AstraZeneca and Moderna.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said that the government intends to start the COVID-19 vaccine booster shot rollout "no later" than November 8. 

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Although the TGA has approved the use of Pfizer boosters for over-18s, the program will still need the approval of top immunisation advice body ATAGI. 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the booster rollout will begin with aged care facilities, just as the country's vaccination program did.

"We will be approving those plans over the course of the next week or so," Mr Morrison told Today. 

Mr Hunt said the Pfizer boosters would be "universal" meaning anybody who has been fully vaccinated with either Pfizer, AstraZeneca, or Moderna, would be eligible for the booster. 

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Why booster shots matter

TGA Deputy Secretary Professor John Skerritt said booster shots added to the coronavirus protections vaccines offered for Australians.

"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. 

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"We do know that boosters may give additional protection against mild COVID-19 and they may have an impact on having transmission and we do know that in the elderly, and people of various immunocompromised conditions, that an additional dose is valuable.  

"It may provide reassurance for frontline health workers." 

Professor Skerritt said recent studies showed a booster shot could increase protection to 96 per cent. 

Will more boosters be needed?

Professor Skerritt said health authorities would have to "wait and see" to determine if further boosters would be needed. 

"There are vaccines whereby three shots give you almost life-long protection," he said. 

"We didn't know about the duration of protection (for double vaccination), so no-one knows about the duration of protection post-this booster." 

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He said the good news was that health authorities had not, as feared, had to change the booster despite the severity of the Delta strain. 

"A few months ago we were worried that we'd have to have quite different vaccines because of the emergence of variants," he said. 

Booster shots not required to keep freedoms

Mr Hunt confirmed booster shots will not be required for people to maintain their vaccination status. 

"You are fully vaccinated this point, and it'll be added to the immunisation register, as is the ordinary course of events at the moment," he said. 

Approval of the booster dose has also been granted in the United States, Europe and United Kingdom.