Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator McMahon, for the supplementary question. The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines into regional, rural and remote communities is a vital part of the Australian government's vaccine strategy to protect our rural and remote communities and manage the fight against the virus in the regions.

Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines require two separate doses for a person to be fully immunised: Pfizer-BioNTech 21 days apart and AstraZeneca 12 weeks apart. The rural health workforce has been integral to managing the challenge of the COVID pandemic over the year and our rural health workforce is vital to the success of our vaccination rollout, and we will again be relying on them—and we know we can rely on them—to follow up individuals and deliver for our remote communities.

We commend the efforts of all the doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists and allied health workers in our rural and remote areas and thank them for their efforts.