Australians will start getting vaccinated against Covid-19 in mid February - and it will be COMPULSORY for some people

• e-mail

Australians will start getting vaccinated against Covid-19 in mid-February and the jab may be compulsory for some people, Scott Morrison announced on Thursday.

The prime minister said he expects regulators to approve the Pfizer vaccine, which has already been rolled out around the world, before the end of January. 

The American company ships the vaccine two weeks after approval and then another week will be spent testing the batch when it arrives in Australia.

The vials will then be sent to hospitals around the nation.

Supporters at the Sydney Cricket Ground wore full-body protection as they entered on Thursday 

Hotel quarantine workers, healthcare workers and aged care staff and residents will be vaccinated first. 

Elderly people, indigenous Australians over 55, people with clinical conditions and high-risk workers will be next.

Despite repeatedly insisting that a Covid-19 vaccine will be voluntary, Mr Morrison flagged the possibility that it may be a legal requirement for certain types of people to get the jab.

He said National Cabinet discussions 'will include the necessity for state governments and territory governments to harmonise and ensure and national consistency in public health orders which is the process by which any requirement to have the vaccine is made legal across Australia.'

Pressed further by journalists, the prime minister refused to say if a legal direction to get vaccinated would apply to quarantine workers or aged care residents. 

'All I have said today is that discussion needs to be had and so we will have that discussion,' he said. 

'That is an important public health discussion that needs to be had with states and territories.' 

The government also expects regulators to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine and roll it out in March.

Initially, imported doses will be used before Australia begins producing its own vials at the CSL factory in Melbourne. 

Initially, between 30 and 50 hospitals will be used as hubs to distribute the Pfizer vaccine.

Then general practice clinics, existing Commonwealth GP respiratory clinics and a number of other state run vaccination clinics will be used. 

Covid-19 testing at a new walk-in clinic in Berala on Thursday

Each person will receive two jabs of the same vaccine about a month apart. 

Mr Morrison is targeting 80,000 vaccinations a week in February and wants this number to rapidly increase to issue four million jabs by the end of March. 

The Pfizer jab is much more difficult to distribute because it must be stored at -70C so the AstraZeneca jab will be the one distributed to remote populations.

The prime minister said he and Health Minister Greg Hunt will get the vaccine on TV early to improve public confidence.

'It's important for public confidence for leaders around the country and I'll make myself available to do that. I've had no discussion with the premiers but I'm sure they would as well,' he said. 

Scott Morrison has announced a coronavirus vaccine will be rolled out to vulnerable people in Australia in mid February

The vaccines will be distributed to each state based on the number of priority people that need the vaccine, not based on the amount of infections in each area. 

The last group to be vaccinated will be children. Professor Brendan Murphy said: 'We know that children are at very low risk of getting Covid and transmitting Covid and the vaccine has not yet been thoroughly tested against children.' 

The government expects every Australian who wants a jab to get one by October. 

But the prime minister said that Covid safe practices will continue throughout 2021 even with the vaccine. 

'Vaccination is not a silver bullet… Covid safe practices do not end, they continue. 

'Covid safe practices will be a 2021 lived experience. It will still be a fight over the course of 2021 but this will add a very significant further defence and offence I should in combatting the virus around the world,' he said.

Mr Morrison said the Theraputic Goods Administration was working overtime to approve the vaccines but was not cutting any corners.

COVID-19 testing at the Merrylands drive-through clinic in Sydney on Thursday

'There have been no delays in this process... it is moving considerably faster than the normal vaccination approval process in Australia but without skipping a step, without cutting a corner,' he said.

Countries around the world including the US and UK have already been rolling out the vaccine under emergency approval.

The prime minster said Australia did not need to do this because the number of infections here is much lower. 

Meanwhile, the National Cabinet of state leaders will meet on Friday to discuss tightening hotel quarantine due to worries about the UK's more infectious strain of coronavirus.