The government is now operating in accordance with the Guidance on Caretaker Conventions, pending the outcome of the 2025 federal election.
This statement was originally published on 1 April 2020 and updated on 8 May 2020.
Six influenza vaccines are available in Australia in 2020. All of these vaccines are quadrivalent, which means they contain four strains of influenza.
To date, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has released over 220 batches of influenza vaccine, consisting of over 15.7 million doses for supply in Australia for the 2020 season. This includes over 6.2 million for private supply, including through pharmacies, and over 9.5 million for Government-funded programs.
Every year, the TGA is responsible for reviewing the quality of all brands of the influenza vaccines released to the Australian market.
Despite the current COVID-19 pandemic, the TGA is continuing to release influenza vaccines within normal processing times. TGA has not experienced any delays in processing influenza vaccines through the batch release program and has continued assessing the quality of the influenza vaccines for this season.
The Department of Health works closely with influenza vaccine manufacturers to ensure timely availability of influenza vaccines for all Australians, particularly those individuals identified at risk.
Vaccine manufacturers are responsible for prioritising vaccine supply to individual pharmacies and distributors.
To find out more about the 2020 flu vaccines, see 2020 seasonal influenza vaccines: Information for consumers and health professionals.