News

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COVID-19 vaccines to move onto NIP

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The National COVID-19 Vaccine Program (NCVP) will end from 1 October, with free vaccine eligibility tightening and transitioning to the National Immunisation Program (NIP).
 
Under the NIP, funded COVID-19 vaccines will no longer be available as a ‘universal program’, instead, states and territories will manage ordering, distribution, and reporting.
 
From 1 October, free COVID-19 vaccines will only be available under the NIP for:

• adults aged 75 years and over (one dose every six months)
• adults aged 65–74 years (one dose every 12 months)
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 50–74 years (one dose every 12 months)
• all adults aged 18 years and over with severe immunocompromise (one dose every 12 months).

Until 1 October, COVID-19 vaccines remain available under current NCVP arrangements, and providers can continue to offer them in line with the existing program.
 
Announcing the change, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DoHDA) said Australia’s COVID-19 ‘context has changed’.
 
However, one expert told newsGP that while the transition of the COVID-19 vaccination to the NIP was ‘inevitable’, it is important to ensure it is not seen by the public as a diminishing of concern about the virus.
 
Professor Paul Griffin, Director of Infectious Diseases at Mater Health Services, said the transition ‘certainly shouldn’t be a signal to people that it’s any less of a concern or that we’re not wanting to get as many people vaccinated as possible’.
 
‘We need to handle the commentary really carefully and make sure that people don’t see this as a sign that COVID is less important, or less of a concern, because it’s definitely not the case and not the intention,’ he said.
 
‘I’ve seen people from my practice in hospital due to COVID and unfortunately not survive, not that long ago.’
 
The NCVP was established during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, said the DoHDA, ‘when most people had little or no immunity against the disease’.
 
‘COVID-19 is now endemic in Australia and continues to disproportionately affect certain populations,’ it said.
 
‘Based on current evidence and the changed epidemiology, the vaccination program will focus on maintaining protection against severe COVID-19 in those most at risk.’
 
Around 62,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported across Australia so far this year, compared to 185,000 in 2025, and more than 10 million in the pandemic’s peak in 2022.
 
Professor Griffin says in the face of declining vaccination rates, GPs may face difficult discussions with patients, but could use the new program as an opportunity.
 
‘We know GPs do a fantastic job of managing vaccination and a lot of the conversation around that, and this is going to be something they will need to be forewarned and forearmed about because I think it will lead to some challenging discussions, where people may think that it’s less important,’ he said.
 
‘We know that so many people are not up to date with their COVID vaccines and hopefully we see this as an opportunity to promote access and get more people vaccinated under the new program, rather than it being something that has the opposite effect.’ 
 
Dr Griffin said there is a ‘very real’ concern COVID-19 vaccines might not be available to eligible cohorts at the right time, which may add further barriers.
 
‘We know that it’s harder than ever to get people to get vaccinated and any access or logistical challenges can have a significant impact,’ he said.
 
‘We do really need to make sure we get that right so that people don’t need to go to multiple locations to potentially get access, or think it’s too hard such that they avoid or delay it.
 
‘That’s something I think we really need to work on, to make sure there’s no additional barriers.’ 
 
GP and Immunisation Coalition Chair Dr Rodney Pearce told newsGP the lack of consistency between state and territories around vaccine distribution may make it challenging to ensure vaccines are available to the right people when needed.
 
‘That’s one of the ironies about COVID; the Commonwealth showed it could put vaccines directly into our fridges,’ he said.
 
‘If the states do the same thing all around the country that would be good, but the states do different things, so you’ve just added a level of complexity and you’re adding some resistance or hesitancy because it’s not the same advice everywhere.’
 
The DoHDA says updated resources to support the transition will be available to immunisation providers before 1 October, including:
 

• updated COVID-19 vaccination recommendations and funding eligibility
• advice on ordering and accessing vaccines through state and territory arrangements
• guidance on cold chain breach and vaccine administration error reporting
• support for providers and the community for the transition. 

The Australian Immunisation Handbook’s chapter on COVID-19 will also be updated for the program change.
 
Professor Griffin said ‘carefully monitoring’ the vaccine rollout under the NIP will become important, as he is concerned current guidelines ‘are not capturing every potential risk’.
 
‘For example, staff members in residential age care and healthcare I would like to think still have ready access to vaccination, but there are some concerns that groups like that may not necessarily be captured in the new guidelines,’ he said.
 
‘For that reason, we’ve got expanded influenza programs for some of those groups every flu season, and it might just mean that the responsibility and cost shifts to those facilities rather than it being government funded.
 
‘We need to be very careful about some of those consequences of this change, and make sure some of those other groups still definitely do have access.’ 
 
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COVID-19 immunisation National COVID-19 Vaccine Program National Immunisation Program vaccination

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