[News] Covid-19 vaccinations begin in Australia with Scott Morrison among first group

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Initial group, which includes aged care residents and staff as well as chief medical officer, will receive Pfizer vaccine on Sunday

A health worker draws up a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the US. The first vaccinations in Australia will be given on Sunday.

 

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, will be among a small first group to be vaccinated against Covid-19 on Sunday – a step the government says is intended to build public confidence in the safety of the vaccines.

 

On Sunday the Australian prime minister will receive the Pfizer jab in an initial group that includes several aged care residents, aged care staff, the chief medical officer and the chief nursing and midwifery officer, according to the health minister, Greg Hunt.

 

“The prime minister will be the last of that group,” Hunt told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday. “Today is the day where the first vaccines will be administered in Australia.”

 

The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, is not in the Sunday group but he is set to receive a jab later this week.

 

Asked about potential criticism that Morrison had jumped the queue, Hunt said there had been “a very strong focus on the need for key leaders, not the Parliament, not the Cabinet, not even the leadership group, but a cross-party group, to provide that confidence” in vaccines.

 

He said that had been an approach taken “in many places around the world”.