Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues to gather pace.
COVID-19 vaccinations are free for everyone aged 12 years and over in Australia. Getting vaccinated is the best way to keep you, your family, friends, and the community safe.
More than 41 million doses have been administered overall.
More than 94% of Australians aged 16+ have now had their first vaccine and more than 91% are fully vaccinated.
Vaccines are available at:
- State and territory operated clinics
- General practices
- Commonwealth vaccination clinics
- Community pharmacies
- Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services
- Other arrangements, such as doctors visiting an aged care or disability residential service, government-operated pop up clinics, or teams organised by disability service providers
- Some workplaces.
Vaccinations for children aged 5 to 11 years old
In December 2021, Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) provisionally approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years.
Appointments for 5 to 11-year-olds will start from 10 January 2022. If you can’t find an appointment that suits you, please check back regularly as more appointments will become available.
Not all vaccine providers will administer Pfizer to children aged 5 to 11 years.
Booster doses now available for 18+
To provide even greater protection against COVID-19, Australians aged 18 and over who have received two doses at least four months ago, are now eligible to have a booster shot.
Booster doses are not mandatory, however they are recommended to maintain immunity against COVID-19.
Two doses of COVID-19 vaccine provide very good protection, especially against severe disease.
A booster dose will make sure the protection from the first two doses is even stronger and longer lasting, and should help prevent spread of the virus.
A booster dose increases your protection against:
- infection with the virus that causes COVID-19
- severe disease
- dying from COVID-19.
A booster dose will continue to protect you, your loved ones and your community against COVID-19.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and recommended by ATAGI as a COVID-19 booster dose.
You can have the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine as a booster dose regardless of which vaccine you had for your first 2 doses.
You can also receive the AstraZeneca vaccine if you:
- Can’t have the Pfizer vaccine for medical reasons
- Had 2 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine previously.
Booster doses will be free for everyone.
Benefits of vaccination
COVID-19 will be with us for many years into the future.
Getting vaccinated now has many benefits, including:
- protecting yourself against severe illness and death from COVID-19
- preventing complications such as ‘long COVID’
- protecting people who can’t be vaccinated due to medical conditions
- slowing the spread of the virus
- keeping hospitalisation rates at a level our health system can cope with
- reducing the need for lockdowns and school closures in the future (when enough Australians are vaccinated)
- being able to attend events and travel in the future.
Our vaccine supply
We have agreements in place to buy vaccines from manufacturers.
We can access Australian-made AstraZeneca vaccines. There is plenty of AstraZeneca available across Australia.
Pfizer and Moderna are manufactured overseas. There is increasing supply of these vaccines in Australia.
Our COVID-19 vaccine and treatment strategy outlines how we are investing in vaccines and treatments and how they will be safely, fairly and rapidly delivered to Australians.
The national COVID vaccine taskforce, Operation COVID Shield, coordinates distribution and delivery of the rollout.
Here are some links where you can get the COVID-19 vaccine locally and any further information you may need:
- Register to get a vaccine appointment in Queensland: here
- Check your eligibility and the list of local GPs administering the vaccine: here
- Find your nearest clinic book for the vaccine or for your booster vaccine: here
- View COVID-19 vaccine information in other languages: here
COVID-19 vaccine enquiries and updates:
- Use this form to submit enquiries about Australia’s COVID-19 vaccines, or alternatively call 1800 020 080.
- Subscribe to updates about Australia’s COVID-19 vaccines.
