The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in Australia is fast approaching, and it has been revealed that the jab will be available at more than twice as many locations than expected.

Pharmacies will dispense the AstraZeneca vaccine with chemists asked to submit expressions of interests for taking part in the rollout from today.

Some GPs are highly critical of the idea.

President of the Pharmacy Guild Australia, George Tambassis, said pharmacists are well trained to administer the vaccine safely.

He said in other countries, it was already happening.

“We are all trained to give every vaccine on the Australian market,” he said.

“The government has obviously put a lot of thought behind this, and they trust us to do it. It’s the first time the Australian government has ever funded a vaccine rollout through community pharmacies.”

He said it was a bit of a “turf war”.

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