A Million Pfizer every week

Close to 1 million doses landed in Australia overnight as part of the nation’s vaccine ramp-up, with more than 800,000 landing in Sydney and almost 100,000 in Melbourne.

Both of those states are in the midst of COVID-19 lockdowns due to outbreaks of the virus.

The federal government is expecting 1 million doses of Pfizer to arrive from overseas each week from now until at least the end of August.

The vaccines arrived on a flight from Singapore on Sunday night.

The head of the COVID-19 vaccination taskforce, Lieutenant General John Frewen, said more vaccination venues would open as supplies increased.

“We’ve been bringing on additional GPs, by the end of the month we’ll have 1,300 GPs that can administer Pfizer.” he said.

He said the Commonwealth was also on the verge of bringing in more pharmacists who could also administer the AstraZeneca vaccine in the first instance.

But Lieutenant General Frewen said it was still likely to be months, not weeks, before under-40s would have widespread access to the Pfizer shot.

Since mid-June the Pfizer vaccine has been recommended for Australians aged under 60, putting pressure on the limited supply of doses.