First locally made AstraZeneca COVID vaccine doses rolling out from March 22

The first locally produced doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines will be administered in just over a fortnight.

Speaking after a meeting of National Cabinet, Federal Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy said the CSL facility in Melbourne was on track to deliver the first batch of doses in the week starting on March 22.

“A million doses-plus a week, which gives us the capacity to really ramp up and broadly vaccinate our population as quickly as possible,” he said.

The vaccine has been approved for use in Australia, but the initial 300,000 doses were produced overseas.

The second delivery of AstraZeneca vaccines has been delayed because of export controls imposed by Italy and the European Union.

Both health authorities and the Prime…