A new advertising campaign is being rolled out to encourage Australians to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The $24 million campaign will run across traditional and social media and provide information about the safety, efficacy and availability of vaccines.
It details how vaccines will be rolled out to priority groups including the elderly, disabled Australians and frontline workers.
Dosage requirements are also explained.
The campaign comes after the Therapeutic Goods Administration approved the Pfizer vaccine as the first to be used in Australia.
The vaccine rollout is expected to start in late February.
Health Minister Greg Hunt described Australia as a vaccine nation, saying the country had one of the highest jab take-up rates in the world.
“I am confident, given Australia’s high vaccination coverage rates, that Australians will take up a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine in equally high numbers,” he said on Jan. 27.
“This campaign will help every Australian to understand how the vaccine works and how it will keep them and their family safe.”
Meanwhile, quarantine-free travel from New Zealand will remain suspended until at least Thursday, prompting a rebuke from Kiwi leader Jacinda Ardern.
Ardern has told Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that she is disappointed by the decision.
“If we are to enter into a trans-Tasman bubble we will need to give people confidence that we won’t see closures at the border that happen with very short notice over incidents we believe can be well managed domestically,” she told reporters.
The travel bubble was burst after a woman in New Zealand tested positive for a highly contagious virus strain found in South Africa.
It was the first local case in New Zealand in more than two months.
Australia has recorded several days of zero locally acquired coronavirus cases, with a trickle of new cases in hotel quarantine.
Acting Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd has warned coronavirus vaccines will not trigger wholesale changes to restrictions when the rollout ramps up in coming months.
