{"id":9690,"date":"2020-12-17T05:32:18","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T05:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=9690"},"modified":"2020-12-17T05:32:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T05:32:18","slug":"preparing-australians-for-the-covid-19-vaccination-roll-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/12\/17\/preparing-australians-for-the-covid-19-vaccination-roll-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing Australians for the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out"},"content":{"rendered":"

An important education campaign will be rolled out to inform Australians ahead of the COVID-19 vaccination program.
\nThe vaccination roll-out will be a complex task and it will be important that people understand the process with the first vaccinations on track for early next year.
\nMinister for Health, Greg Hunt said the Mid-Year Fiscal and Economic Outlook 20-21 (MYEFO) reinforces the Australian Government\u2019s commitment to continue to protect the community and get lives back to normal through this pandemic.
\n\u201cThe information campaign, with funding of $23.9 million, will work in partnership with the states and medical experts, to explain the regulatory processes, the priority groups, timing and roll-out to assist people to understand how the vaccines work, and to be ready for when they can receive the vaccine,\u201d said Minister Hunt.
\n\u201cThe vaccines will be voluntary and free, we encourage people to have the vaccine to protect themselves and their family.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is essential that people understand that Australia\u2019s medical regulatory processes need to occur before the vaccines are approved for use. \u00a0We are receiving data from overseas and this will assist in finalising the priority groups for the vaccinations, putting our health and aged care workers in the first wave along with elderly Australians who are at most risk from the virus,\u201d Minister Hunt said.
\nThe COVID-19 vaccine communications will include a national advertising campaign and communication specifically targeting priority groups, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) groups and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
\nOver $40 million in funding is being provided to streamline processes necessary to the approval and distribution, so the clinical information can be assessed in real time.
\nThe funding for Services Australia, the Australian Digital Health Agency and Therapeutic Goods Administration will allow necessary enhancements aimed at reducing existing manual processes and improving digital integration across these systems.
\nThe Government is also improving critical capacity requirements for the Australian Immunisation Register, as the Government\u2019s central resource for recording COVID-19 vaccinations so people will have a record of their vaccination.\u00a0 This will be essential as all current vaccines planned for Australia require a two-vaccine process.
\nThe Government is securing 20 million additional doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. This brings the total number of doses to 53.8 million \u2013 enough for the entire Australian population.
\nThe extra 20 million doses will be produced in Australia by CSL.
\nAdditionally, a further 11 million doses of the Novavax vaccine will be purchased, bringing the total for this vaccine to 51 million.\u00a0 This will be an additional whole-of-population vaccine should it be proven to be safe and effective.
\nA purchasing agreement is also in place for the Pfizer\/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, with 10 million doses scheduled for early 2021.
\nBuilding Australia\u2019s vaccine manufacturing capacity<\/strong>
\nThe Australian Government is investing $1 billion to ensure Australia\u2019s capacity to manufacture vaccines in the future, though its supply agreement with Seqirus.
\nThe Government will extend the current supply agreement with Seqirus, ensuring long-term, onshore manufacturing and supply of products of national significance including pandemic influenza vaccines, Q fever vaccines, and Australian-specific antivenoms from 1 July 2024 through to 2036.
\nUnder this agreement, Seqirus will invest more than $800 million in a new state-of-the-art biotech manufacturing facility in Melbourne.
\nMore than $1 billion to support Senior Australians<\/strong>
\nMYEFO confirms the Morrison Government\u2019s increased support for senior Australians with an additional $1 billion \u2013 including $850.8 million to increase in-home support, ensuring 10,000 more Australians can continue living independently at home for longer.
\nThis investment also continues the Government\u2019s actions to comprehensively respond to the Aged Care Royal Commission\u2019s Interim Report and COVID-19 special report \u2013 ahead of the Final Report being delivered in February 2021.
\nMinister for Aged Care and Senior Australians, Richard Colbeck, said the Australian Government was quickly implementing recommendations from the Royal Commission\u2019s special report on COVID-19, released in October 2020.
\n\u201c<\/strong>This new home care funding is on top of the $1.6 billion investment for more than 23,000 packages announced in the 2020\u201321 Budget, and will increase the number of Australians receiving in-home care support to approximately 195,600 by 30 June 2021,\u201d said Minister Colbeck.
\nWhile the population of those aged 70 and over has jumped by 28 per cent since 2012, home care packages have increased by over 200 per cent with funding tripling – or more than 10 times the growth in population of older Australians.
\nAged care residents will be able to access up to 20 individual psychological services, with an additional $35.5 million to expand the eligibility requirements for the Better Access to Psychiatrists, Psychologists and General Practitioners through the Medicare Benefits Scheme initiative through to 30 June 2022.
\nMore than $27 million will improve access to allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists and exercise physiologists for individual and group therapy sessions.
\nAn additional $11.1 million, over five years, will fast-track the implementation of the Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) to better protect senior Australians in residential aged care, bringing its implementation forward to April 2021.
\nAn additional $57.8 million will be provided to the states and territories to support their pandemic response in aged care.
\nReducing stillbirth rates in Australia<\/strong>
\nThe Morrison Government is providing $11 million over four years to continue work to reduce the rate of stillbirths around the country by 20 per cent, under the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan.
\nAround 2,000 Australian families face the tragedy of stillbirth every year, about six per day \u2013 a rate which has changed little over the past 20 years.
\nSupporting Early Psychosis Youth Services and tackling mental health stigma<\/strong>
\nA total of $53 million has been allocated by the Morrison Government to extend the Early Psychosis Youth Services (EPYS) Program until 30 June 2022. Funding will be provided to Primary Health Networks to continue to commission the existing EPYS sites and a small amount of funding will also be provided to headspace National and Orygen to support this commissioning activity.
\nThe funding will ensure young people have continuity of care and providers can have certainty during this period.
\nA further $1 million over two years will go to the National Mental Health Commission to develop a campaign to reduce stigma and discrimination towards people seeking mental health support.
\nThe Productivity Commission Report into mental health noted that such a campaign could encourage the million Australians with a mental illness who have never sought support to reach out, and this could lead to a significant economic benefit.
\nStrengthening Primary Care \u2013 rural and regional primary care<\/strong>
\nTo help address longstanding GP shortages in northern and north-western Tasmania, the Morrison Government is providing $2 million over three years to establish the General Practice Incentive Fund Tasmania (GPIFT) to attract and retain doctors to the region.
\nBuilding on the investment in the 2020-21 Federal Budget, this funding will provide a suite of incentives for doctors who relocate to the region and support building IT capability to provide telehealth and other technologies to improve patient access.
\nThe new fund will include support for the local health sector to develop a collaborative primary care model to better integrate services and create a more sustainable workforce for the region.
\nThe Government will also provide $1.0 million over three years to attract and retain GPs to the Peel region of WA and Wide Bay QLD respectively.
\n\u00a0New cancer, HIV and muscular atrophy medication added to the PBS<\/strong>
\n\u00a0<\/strong>Thousands of Australians each year will benefit from the addition of new medications to the PBS.<\/p>\n