Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer says today is a historic moment in the fight against Covid-19. Australia received its first shipment of vaccines, with 142,000 doses of the jab arriving in Sydney from Belgium.

The doses are being held in a secret cold storage facility which keeps the drug at minus 70 degrees and there’ll be ongoing quality and safety checks.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says the jabs will be distributed to the states and territories to administer over the next six weeks. Health and quarantine workers will get the first vaccine shot, along with elderly Australians from next Monday February 22.

Director of Infectious Diseases at Mater, Dr Paul Griffin told Oliver Peterson this represents another “big step forward in the battle with this virus.”

Dr Griffin is reassuring people who are concerned about getting a needle, saying, “the period of discomfort is very short.”

“The more people that get vaccinated, the more the chances are of success of the program and the less we’re going to need things like lockdowns,” said Dr Griffin

To view the roll-out schedule go to health.gov.au

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