'Unrealistic' most Australians will have first COVID-19 vaccine by October
It's "unrealistic" most Australians will have their first COVID-19 vaccine by October, an infectious disease experts says.
To date, more than 500,000 Australians have received a jab as part of the Phase 1 rollout, which has been marked by delays and supply shortages.
While the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has approved local manufacturing of the AstraZeneca vaccine it could be a while yet before most Australians get inoculated against COVID-19.
READ MORE: Delayed vaccine rollout gets major boost
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The AstraZeneca vaccine was approved for use in Australia in late February. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP, File) AP
It was hoped most Australians would receive their first jab by October, but Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake says the target has been blown out of the water.
"Overall the vaccine rollout has been slower than we initially hoped for. That end date at the end of October is probably not realistic," he said.
Despite the delay, the infectious disease expert doesn't think cooler months will see a resurgence of the deadly virus, which has claimed 2.7 million lives globally.
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Professor Sanjaya Senanayake predicts social distancing will stick around over winter. Photograph by Chris Hopkins
"A southern hemisphere winter is much milder than the Northern Hemisphere one. People were social distancing, getting the flu shots. Hopefully that will be the same scenario this winter," he said.
"Of course more people will have been vaccinated by then."
Associate Professor Senanayak added that Australia is in a good position and predicts the delay won't make "much difference" to the COVID response.
"If it does go into November, December, January, it hopefully won't make a big difference. Even without the vaccine, Australia has been doing really well," he said.
"It is going forward, and we're learning with every day and every week that the vaccine program is rolled out.
"We have to continue on."
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