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Victoria celebrates 11 days with ZERO new coronavirus cases – but millions are still forced into hotel quarantine in one state
- AstraZeneca vaccine joined Pfizer vaccine in being approved in Australia
- The government is making doses at the CSL factory in Melbourne
- Victoria has now gone 11 days without Covid community transmission
Victoria has recorded 11 days without a locally-acquired COVID-19 case as it readies to administer the first of the state’s AstraZeneca vaccines.
Despite the impressive milestone, Victorians are still unable to travel to Western Australia without entering two weeks of mandatory quarantine.
An airline worker in hotel quarantine tested positive to the virus on Monday, with another case recorded in hotel quarantine on Tuesday.
A man is shown being vaccinated with the new Astra Zeneca Covid vaccine in Berlin this month
The EU blocked a shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines from leaving Italy for Australia on Thursday, drawing on controversial export laws for the first time. Pictured: The first shipment of AstraZeneca arriving in Australia on February 28
It brings the number of active cases in the state to five.
Victoria is set to begin administering the first of its 50,800 AstraZeneca doses this week.
On Sunday, 844 vaccines were administered.
That brings the total number of doses administered in Victoria to 14,222, since the start of the Pfizer vaccine rollout from February 22.
Last week the European Union was accused of ‘bullying’ and blasted as a ‘total disgrace’ after blocking a shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines to Australia.
Health workers in Berlin prepare syringes with the new AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid this month
Australia’s first 142,000 does of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine arrived last month
Authorities in Italy drew on controversial export laws for the first time, refusing to grant a licence for 250,000 doses manufactured in the country to be exported.
The batch was halted because of ‘continuing shortage of vaccines in the EU and in Italy and delays in supplies from AstraZeneca to the EU and Italy,’ the Italian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Italy also argued Australia is not a high-risk country, with low case and death numbers, in stark contrast to countries overwhelmed by the pandemic.
Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration was only the second regulator in the world – after the European Medicines Agency – to give the jab full approval after dozens of countries such as the UK rolled out the jab early under emergency approval.
Australians will be given two doses of the vaccine, which was produced at Oxford University, three months apart.
The vaccine will stop everyone who gets it from dying of Covid and will stop 82 per cent of people from getting ill due to the disease.
It is not yet clear if it will stop asymptomatic transmission, which could be crucial to re-opening the country’s border.
‘The vaccine has met requirements for standards, for safety, quality, and efficacy, and will be provided free to Australians,’ Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
Australia has ordered the vaccine from overseas and it will arrive in early March.
The government is also making one million doses per week at the CSL factory in Melbourne, with the first local batch due in late March.
The government aims to vaccinate four million people by April and everyone by October.
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