CANBERRA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Australia has administered more than 400,000 coronavirus vaccines in one week for the first time, Greg Hunt, the Minister for Health, on Monday announced.
There were 402,000 vaccine doses administered in the seven days last week, which took the total number of vaccines since the rollout began in February to more than 2.6 million, according to the minister.
"Every day, those numbers are climbing," Hunt told reporters. "More Australians are being vaccinated and that's greater protection for them and for the nation."
He was joined by Eric Young, the Royal Australian Navy Commodore responsible for coordinating Australia's vaccine program, who said that 351,000 Pfizer vaccines arrived in the country on Monday morning.
Young said that the government was set to distribute more than 900,000 doses to general practitioners (GPs) and vaccination centers over the week.
"In terms of distribution of the vaccine, last week, we successfully distributed 560,000 doses of the vaccine," he said.
"This week, on the back of the additional allocations and amid growing supplies, we will be distributing over 900,000 doses of vaccines, with more than 5,000 orders going out across the country. That is our biggest week by far."
The government has abandoned its goal of vaccinating the Australian population against COVID-19 by October.
Hunt said that greater travel freedoms for vaccinated people flagged by Prime Minister Scott Morrison would be an incentive for Australians to get inoculated as soon as possible. Enditem
