Federal Government Unveils Independent Review Into Australia’s Contracts For Covid Vaccines and Treatments

An independent review has been ordered by the Labor government into Australia’s contracts for Covid vaccines and treatments “to ensure that they are fit-for-purpose” amid emerging sub-variants.

Health minister Mark Butler said that Jane Halton, who steered the national report into hotel quarantine earlier in the pandemic will lead the review “as a matter of some urgency”.

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Expected to “take stock of current contracts and the existing supplies we have in (the) country of vaccines and treatments,” Butler said, the government wants the review conducted “in weeks, not many months” due to the evolving nature of the virus.

“We are determined as a government to stay on the front foot in the fight against this virus and ensure that the Australian community has priority access to the best possible vaccine protection against this virus and all of its variants.

“And the best possible cutting-edge treatments to prevent severe illness and death for vulnerable Australians,” Butler added.

The health minister said the review is “not about looking back and examining the rights and wrongs of the former government’s approach to negotiating these contracts in the first place”, but instead it is to “ensure that arrangements that might have been fantastic three months ago are fit-for-purpose for the rest of this year and into next year”.

Meanwhile, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has provisionally approved Pfizer’s Covid vaccine, for use in children aged six months to five years old.

Still needing the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) to give the green light before administering jabs to this age group, Pfizer can now apply for registration of their vaccine for children under five.

Meanwhile, Covid cases and hospitalisations across Australia and New Zealand look like this:

Western Australia 

• New cases: 5,548
• Covid-related deaths: 7
• Hospital and ICU admissions: 219 / 11

Northern Territory 

• New cases: 354
• Covid-related deaths: 0
• Hospital and ICU admissions: 15 / 2

Australian Capital Territory 

• New cases: 1,250   
• Covid-related deaths: 1
• Hospital and ICU admissions: 112 / 2

Queensland 

• New cases: 5,286
• Covid-related deaths: 10
• Hospital and ICU admissions: 642 / 14

New South Wales 

• New cases: 8,201
• Covid-related deaths: 21
• Hospital and ICU admissions: 1,263 / 40

Victoria 

• New cases: 9,926
• Covid-related deaths: 17
• Hospital and ICU admissions: 465 / 21

South Australia 

• New cases: 3,129
• Covid-related deaths: 0
• Hospital and ICU admissions: 237 / 8

Tasmania 

• New cases: 1,268
• Covid-related deaths: 2
• Hospital and ICU admissions: 44 / 3

New Zealand 

• New cases: 7,423
• Covid-related deaths: 19
• Hospital and ICU admissions: 411 / 6

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