The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine has now been approved as the primary course for children aged 6 to 11 in Australia.
Vaccination sites for Moderna are to become available across 4,000 around the country from Feb. 24, with an additional 1,600 clinics and pharmacies expected to join the number once they have completed their training packages.
TGA Considers Novavax as Boosters and for Children
The news about Moderna’s approval comes as TGA deputy secretary, John Skerritt said that the organisation is in discussions with Novavax leaders to see if the vaccine can be provisioned for children as well as boosters for adults.The TGA are still waiting for data from Novavax. A response on further rollouts are expected from March onwards.
The news comes as 12,000 Novavax protein vaccines have been rolled out since Feb. 14 for Australians aged 18 and over, well ahead of what the government anticipated.
“We are seeing that there are people who are coming forward for Novavax who had chosen, for whatever reason, not to be vaccinated earlier, and that’s encouraging,” Skerritt said.
TGA Considers Additional Shots
When asked if four shots are being considered as the definition to “fully vaccinated” Skerritt said that they are still considering due to the flu season coming in as the country goes into winter.“Because of masks and perhaps because of isolation from the rest of the world, we’ve had fairly extremely low flu numbers, and that’s not going to continue forever,” he said.
He said the TGA is looking into the possible impacts of flu and COVID-19 as the winter season approaches and “whether vulnerable populations would require a fourth dose, especially if they were boosted in November, December 2021, or into January 2022.”
Skerritt said that there has been “a lot of active thinking and planning” into the fourth dose and the TGA will “have to have clear positions” on it by March and April.
As of Feb. 23, 49.4 percent of children have received their first dose of the vaccine and 62.1 percent of eligible of Australians have received their boosters.