Thousands of frontline workers get Pfizer jab

Australia’s vaccine rollout is underway with the first recipients getting their COVID-19 shots on Sunday the 21st.

The very first Australian to receive the vaccine was 85-year-old Jane Malysiak, a World War Two survivor, along with a group of 20 others including Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

/ Jane Malysiak

The group received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at a Sydney medical centre on the 21st, in what Mr Morrison described as the “curtain raiser” to the full rollout. Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly and Chief Nursing Officer Alison McMillan were also vaccinated, along with two aged-care residents, aged carers, health workers and defence personnel.

Mr Morrison described the beginning of Australia’s COVID-19 vaccination program as “historic” and a “game changer” with the potential to transform the country’s response to the pandemic.

VIC

The first person to receive the Pfizer vaccine on 22nd morning was Monash Health medical director for infection prevention Rhonda Stuart in Melbourne, who was jabbed just after 7:30am EDT.

Professor Stuart’s team treated the first Australian case of COVID-19 in January 2020 — a returned traveller from the Chinese city of Wuhan.

/ Prime Minister Scott Morrison

NSW

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she expected 1,200 people to get the vaccine on 22nd, about 500 of them at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPA) and the rest at Westmead and Liverpool hospitals.

The first person at RPA to get jabbed was hotel quarantine cleaner Gaya Vellangalloor Srinivasan, who was elated.

/NSW Premier Gladys Berejklian

QLD

The first to get the jab in Queensland was nurse Zoe Park — she is among 180 recipients to receive the vaccine in the sunshine state today alongside police Inspector Owen Hortz.

Ms Parks works at Gold Coast University Hospital, where the first confirmed Queensland case of coronavirus was found in January last year.

/nurse Zoe Park

SA

The first to roll up their sleeves to get jabbed was Premier Steven Marshall alongside Health Minister Stephen Wade, public health officer Nicola Spurrier and SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens.

Professor Spurrier said the vaccine was the first step in being able to return to a situation “where we’re not having to be worried about the threat of the pandemic”.

However, most Australians are expected to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine, that will largely be produced by Melbourne-based company CSL. This vaccine has an efficacy rate of 70 per cent, compared with Pfizer’s 95 per cent.

/ SA Premier Steven Marshall