The first stage of vaccinations from community pharmacists will start next Monday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Health Department secretary Kathrine Morgan-Wicks said selected pharmacies would offer dose one and two of AstraZeneca to Tasmanians aged over 60 years.
She said this would help fill the gap left by state clinics that have moved to Pfizer dose one vaccinations.
READ MORE: QR codes to be mandatory in taxis, Ubers
"We are working with the Commonwealth to bring on more community pharmacies and will look at expansion of the age range and vaccine types as the rollout progresses," Ms Morgan-Wicks said.
At the moment, Tasmania is the only Australian jurisdiction pharmacists are not delivering COVID-19 vaccinations.
Thirty-one state pharmacies have been approved by the federal government to administer vaccines.
Ms Morgan-Wicks said 350,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been delivered to date with 50,000 of these delivered over the past two weeks.
She said more than 84 per cent of Tasmanians aged over 70 years had received their first dose and 53 per cent were fully vaccinated.
For Tasmanians aged over 50 years, 72 per cent had received their first dose and more than 36 per cent were fully vaccinated.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration gave provisional approval for a third COVID-19 vaccine Moderna on Monday.
Ms Morgan-Wicks said this vaccine was expected to become available nationally in September with availability increasing in October.
Public Health director Mark Veitch said people who developed cold or flu-like symptoms while fully vaccinated should still take a COVID-19 test.
"If you're fully vaccinated, you can still catch COVID," he said.
"If you've been fully vaccinated, you're very unlikely to become seriously ill."
Ms Morgan-Wicks said there were 1158 presentations to COVID-testing clinics on Sunday and 1543 tests processed in laboratories.
"This is far more than we'd see on an ordinary weekend so that's a very significant result," she said.
What do you think? Send us a letter to the editor:
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
More from Health
DAILY
Your morning news
Today's top stories curated by our news team. Also includes evening update.
