Moderna COVID-19 vaccine close to approval in Australia

A second mRNA vaccine could be added to Australia’s national rollout as soon as early next month, with the federal medicines regulator close to approving the Moderna jab.

Therapeutic Goods Administration chief John Skerritt told a Senate committee on Friday the messenger RNA vaccine could be approved by early August, joining Pfizer and AstraZeneca in the pandemic war chest.

About 10 million will be used in the current rollout and a further 15 million doses will be boosters or variant-specific versions.

On Friday, the Therapeutic Goods Administration announced it had approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 12 to 15.

The rollout passed 10.85 million doses administered on Friday, up by another record 196,430 doses in 24 hours.

In the past seven days, 1.04 million doses were administered around the country.