New vaccines targeting latest COVID variant to arrive within weeks

ABC NEWS (Australia)

New COVID vaccines targeting the latest virus variants will arrive in the country within weeks, with Australians being urged to access these latest jabs as the country deals with its eighth wave of infections.

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00:00 COVID lockdowns may be a thing of the past, but certainly there is still COVID circulating

00:06 in the community. We're hearing anecdotally this is disrupting workplaces, sending aged

00:11 care homes into lockdown, but the health experts tell us that we are certainly seeing a spike

00:17 in the number of cases. We are expecting that the peak of this wave will hit around Christmas

00:23 time, so that will make it the third year in a row that we are getting a Christmas COVID

00:28 wave. Infectious disease researcher Brendan Crabb says around hundreds of thousands of

00:33 Australians currently have the virus. He says that it is likely that up to five million

00:38 Australians will get COVID over the next few months. Of course, the concern for authorities

00:45 at the moment is a declining uptake in vaccination booster shots, so the advice from authorities

00:51 is to stay up to date with your COVID vaccine boosters.

00:54 Shannon, tell us more about these new vaccines. So the federal government yesterday has approved

01:00 two new vaccines and they will be better at protecting us against new strains of the virus.

01:08 So the new Pfizer and Moderna XBB 1.5 vaccines, they will be available to the public on December

01:14 11. So over the next few weeks, the focus for authorities was really sending out that

01:19 message to go and get your COVID vaccine if you haven't already done so. And with a significant

01:25 number of these COVID cases and our new strains, authorities are seeking to keep these vaccines

01:30 updated so that we can be better protected against the virus. So certainly the best chance

01:35 to protect yourself against the virus this Christmas is to be up to date with your booster

01:39 shots and also that same health messaging we have been hearing of washing your hands

01:43 and having outdoor gatherings.

01:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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