COVID-19 will not be defeated in Australia unless there is a "very, very high rate of vaccination", says Regional Health Minister and Parkes MP Mark Coulton.
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The MP is telling residents that getting a coronavirus jab will not immediately be "life-changing".
"We're still going to have to at least for this year practise our social distancing and our hand cleanliness and be very weary of what we are doing until the entire population is covered," he said.
"If people said 'Yippee the vaccine is here life's back to normal' then I think we would be in for a lot of trouble.
"It could get away on us."
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The federal government has been copping flak for not rolling out the Oxford University AstraZeneca vaccine and the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine immediately.
Mr Coulton says that's because it's important the government attends to every detail of the rollout before it begins.
"We are doing this very carefully," he said.
"..the main concern with the rollout is that we keep the confidence of the Australian people because for this to work we need to have a very, very high rate of vaccination."
"If people lose faith in the vaccines or the system we put in place that could be a problem."
Mr Coulton said 50 million doses would be available to 25 million people.
He said the government was making progress on the logistics of the rollout including establishing "adequate refrigeration" of the vaccines and deciding who should administer them.
One of the options being considered is the use of federally-funded and GP-led respiratory clinics for vaccinations.
They were set up last year to test for coronavirus.
The minister understands the Therapeutic Goods Administration has found the vaccines to be safe.
"In Australia at the moment we have a very, very low level of people with the virus," Mr Coulton said.
"Whereas some other countries have done quicker rollouts under emergency orders because they are having massive infection rates and loss of life.
"We've sort of got it under control pretty well compared to the rest of the world so therefore we can actually make sure we do this rollout properly."
A day after Mr Coulton spoke to ACM, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the vaccinations would begin in mid-to-late February.