Who Can Access Those Additional 1 Million Pfizer Jabs as of Today?

The Australian government has announced it has been able to secure an additional one million Pfizer vaccines from Poland, with doses arriving into the country on Sunday, August 15.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison shared in a statement that the additional Pfizer jabs are set to be primarily allocated to Australians aged 20 to 39 years, as this group has been recognised as the demographic contracting and spreading the Delta strain of the coronavirus most rapidly.

But how will the Pfizer vaccines be divvied up?

Here’s what we know about who can now access Pfizer vaccines:

Morrison’s statement shared that “530,010 doses will be prioritised for express delivery to the 12 Greater Sydney Local Government Areas where the COVID-19 outbreak continues to grow, following advice from the Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly”.

The government intends to see “everyone aged 20 to 39 years in the 12 LGAs” have the opportunity to be vaccinated as soon as possible.

The 12 LGAs included in this list are as follows: Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta, Strathfield, and some suburbs of Penrith.

These areas are being particularly hard hit by the NSW outbreak, with case numbers increasing despite restrictions tightening.

As our friends at Pedestrian have highlighted, Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke shared on ABC Insiders that a key part of the struggle for these LGAs is that many do not have the privilege of being able to work from home.

“We are the home of essential workers,” Burke said.

“We don’t have that many people who can do their work at home from a laptop. We have to go out into a whole lot of different parts of Sydney to work, to do essential work, to stack shelves, to drive vehicles, to work on logistics, to work in aged care.

“People work multiple jobs, they live in large households, they’re trying to homeschool in many instances where there are more people than rooms in the home.”

Many of those people holding jobs as essential workers fall in the 20 to 39 age bracket.

How about those outside of the specified LGAs and NSW?

In terms of allocation, the NSW government has specified that in addition to the 12 LGAs of concern, the following authorised workers are eligible for Pfizer vaccines:

• Health care, aged care and disability care
• Construction
• Freight and transport
• Meat workers
• Food workers
• Education

You can see the full list here. 

A list of NSW vaccine clinics can be found here, as well as on this nifty map which highlights clinics that stock Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs here.

“The remaining 470,340 Pfizer doses will be distributed on a per capita basis to other states and territories, to fast-track the vaccination of 20 to 39 year olds and other high risk groups,” the statement read.

Allocation for the remaining Pfizer vaccines looks like this: Victoria 175,500, Queensland 136,890, South Australia 47,970, Western Australia 70,200, Tasmania 17,550, Northern Territory 8,190, and the ACT 14,040.