Front-line workers[a] and aged care staff and residents had priority for being inoculated, before a gradual phased release to less-vulnerable and lower-risk population groups throughout 2021.

[11][12] Despite this, Australia began vaccinating its citizens at a comparatively fast pace, overtaking the United States in first dose coverage by 10 October 2021.

[16] On 21 February 2021, a day before the previously announced program start date, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly, Chief Nurse Alison McMillan, Kris Matthews and "a small group" of aged care staff and residents became the first Australians to receive the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine.

[51] On 27 September 2021, the three-stage roadmap to come out of lockdown, and freedoms for vaccinated versus unvaccinated people, was announced by then Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

[58] By 13 June 2021, the Queensland Health Department was delivering vaccines under phase 1a, 1b & 2a (people aged over 40) in the state.

Premier of South Australia Steven Marshall denied knowledge of any delivery and said it was a federal government responsibility to deliver the vaccine.

[65] On 16 September 2021, Tasmania became the second state, after the Australian Capital Territory,[35] to achieve 50% full vaccination of the 16 years and older population.

The authorisation means the vaccine will become part of the Australian Therapeutic Goods Register and will be up for review again in two years based on additional clinical data.

[95] On 23 March, TGA approved the first batch of locally manufactured AstraZeneca vaccine by CSL-Seqirus in Melbourne, and 832,200 doses were ready for rollout in the following weeks.

[96] On 17 June 2021, Federal Health minister Greg Hunt announced a rise in the age limit for administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

After new advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), the vaccine was no longer recommended for people aged under 60 years.

Strict conditions were imposed on Janssen, which includes further investigation documents related to the efficacy, long term effects and safety concerns that must be provided regularly to TGA.

[106] The AstraZeneca vaccine is also recommended to most people aged 18 years after consultation with their GP who are resident in declared hotspot areas.

[107] In June 2021, the Federal government projected that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine would see "little need" after October 2021 when all over 60 year-old Australians were expected to be immunised.

[112] The University of Queensland vaccine was abandoned in December 2020 after trials revealed that, while it was safe, it triggered false positives on HIV tests.

[122][123] The Immunology & Cell Biology called for a pause in its rollout, as the efficacy of the vaccine reported by trials was insufficient to achieve the desired herd immunity effect.

[131][132] On 16 February, the first vials of COVID-19 vaccine produced in Australia came off the production line at the CSL Behring plant in Broadmeadows, Melbourne.

[137] In a February 2021 pre-budget submission, the Australian Academy of Science renewed its call for the government to develop the capability to produce mRNA vaccine technology in Australia.

The ability to mass-produce such vaccines onshore would insulate Australia against supply shocks, and cater for future pandemics and potential biosecurity situations.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated at the time that a definitive timeline for vaccine rollout could no longer be provided, and there is a need to re-evaluate and recalibrate the program.

[12] Morrison suggested two meetings of the National Cabinet be held per week until all issues delaying the vaccine rollout were fixed.

[11] The federal government was criticised by some for declining an invitation to meet with Pfizer executives in 2020, at a time other countries were starting to place orders.

[188][189] On 30 July 2021, the federal government released a revised four-phase plan to transition Australia's National COVID-19 Response from its current pre-vaccination settings, focussing on continued suppression of community transmission, to post-vaccination settings focussed on prevention of serious illness, hospitalisation and fatality, and the public health management of other infectious diseases.

[190][191] In a statement by the Prime Minister on 30 July 2021, it was announced that the federal governments and all states and territories had agreed in-principle to the updated plan.

Vaccines are continually monitored for as long as they are in use, to detect rare adverse events and implement approaches to limit their occurrence.

[197] One of the earliest reported serious adverse events in Australia was a 44-year-old man admitted to Melbourne's Box Hill Hospital on 2 April 2021 when he developed serious thrombosis and thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) [low platelet count] after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine on 22 March.

The event prompted the TGA to warn anyone who experienced persistent headaches or other worrying symptoms 4 to 20 days after receiving the vaccine to seek medical advice.

[205] On 17 June, this partly led to a federal government decision to only recommend the AstraZeneca vaccine for those over 60 years-of-age on advice from ATAGI.

[206] In late June, a 61-year-old woman died in Royal Perth Hospital from immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), which the TGA stated was likely linked to her AstraZeneca vaccination.

[211] After findings and advice on the AstraZeneca vaccine from the UK and EU were released following several months of data on their vaccine rollout, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) and TGA met on 8 April 2021 to review and advise the government as a part of the periodic review process.