Fifth Covid 19 vaccine Novavax to be authorised in Aus.

The Covid-19 vaccine from Novavax was licenced for use in Australia on Thursday, making it the fifth coronavirus vaccine to do so.

For its 26 million people, the country has ordered 51 million doses of the vaccine Nuvaxovid, which is made in the United States. Vaccines from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Moderna are already in use in Australia. The Janssen vaccine from Johnson & Johnson has also been licenced, but the government is  yet to  take a decision on the purchase of it.

The Novavax vaccine will be offered to unvaccinated Australians aged 18 and up, but not as a booster for the 95 percent of the population aged 16 and up who have already been vaccinated.

‘Despite the tremendous uptake of vaccination in this country, there are some people who have been waiting for Novavax, and it’s fantastic that it’s now been approved,’said top regulator John Skerritt of the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

‘In our country, our objective is to develop our 95 percent into a 97 or 98 percent,’ Skerritt remarked.

The protein-based vaccination will be given in two doses separated by three weeks.

Australia, according to Paul Griffin, an associate professor of medicine at Queensland University, must seek to improve on its already remarkable immunisation rate.

‘For a variety of reasons, it appears that some people have been hesitant to acquire these vaccines thus far,’Griffin said. ‘An extra choice, based on what is maybe a more traditional platform, is likely to raise our immunisation rate even further.’