A new COVID-19 vaccine will be available to Australian adults as a third and fourth booster, as case numbers climb.
Health Minister Mark Butler said he had accepted advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) to approve the Pfizer Comirnaty Bivalent Original/Omicron BA.1 vaccine as a third and fourth dose for eligible Australians.
It is the second second bivalent vaccine to be approved in Australia, and will be rolled out from December 12.
Mr Butler said 4.7 million doses of the newly approved vaccines would arrive in two shipments over the next two weeks and be batch-tested by the Therapeutic Goods Administration before being distributed.
"This is an Omicron-targeted vaccine that has elements of the original strain of COVID in it as well as the BA1 sub-variant of the Omicron strain," he said.
"ATAGI has recommended that the Omicron vaccine from Pfizer be added to the booster doses available or recommended here in Australia."
ATAGI recommends a second booster, or fourth dose, three months after the first booster for people over 50 years and for people over 18 who live in an aged care or disability care facility or who have a medical condition that increases their risk of COVID-19.
People aged 30 to 49 can receive a second booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, but ATAGI says the benefit is less certain.
Mr Butler said he had also accepted ATAGI'S recommendation to roll out the Pfizer paediatric vaccine for children six months to five years old who are severely immunocompromised and with specific health conditions.
That vaccine will be available from mid-January next year.
Cases up 47pc but still well below winter peak
The health minister said ATAGI expected to make new booster recommendations early next year, in preparation for winter.
But he said there was currently no recommendation for people to get a third booster shot.
"ATAGI has considered international evidence as well as the local data around the vaccination numbers as well as case numbers in the pandemic and decided not to recommend a fifth dose, or a third booster, if you like, at this point in time," he said.
Mr Butler said the number of COVID cases across the country was on the rise.
"They increased substantially last week, by about 47 per cent week on week." he said.
"They are still about 85 per cent below the peak in late July but there is no question that we have now seen two weeks in a row where on every indicator case numbers are climbing."
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said he was encouraged by the uptake of people taking oral antiviral treatments, which has increased 43 per cent.
"Over the last couple of weeks… there has been an increase in third and fourth doses, but it has been very small compared to what we have seen in the past," he said
"If you're one of those millions of people in Australia who have not had the third dose and you are eligible, or the fourth dose and you are eligible, now is the time to go get it."
He said key indicators showed Australia was in the middle of the current COVID wave.
"If it ends up being similar to Singapore, and I believe it will, then it should peak soon and drop quickly," he said.
