Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt, announced that the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has given provisional approval of the Moderna COVID vaccine for children aged between 12 and 17.
The provisional approval follows the decision made by the administrator in August which allowed for those over 18 to receive the vaccine.
Moderna is the third COVID vaccine to have been approved for use in Australia, following the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.
Minister Hunt also stated that “Australia has an advance purchase agreement with Moderna to secure 25 million doses of the vaccine – 10 million this year and 15 million of booster vaccines in 2022, with the first doses arriving later this month.
According to reports, the Moderna vaccine will likely be made available primarily in pharmacies, and will only be made available to people under the age of 60.
Photo by Artem Podrez from Pexels