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August 29th, 2021 
Awake Goy 
Meanwhile, children aged 12 to 15 have been given the green light by Australia’s regulators to be COVID-19 vaccinated, with the national rollout ticking over the milestone of having one-third of adults fully jabbed.
The ACT leads the way with 41 percent of the national capital’s over-16s fully vaccinated, with Western Australia trailing the pack on 30.4 percent as of Saturday.
After a shaky start, the national program has exceeded 18.7 million doses, with almost 62 percent of over-70s, almost 50 percent of over-50s and 33.71 percent of all those over 16 fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, vaccine bookings for children aged 12 to 15 will open from Sept. 13, following approval by the national expert immunisation panel.
The GP network will be the mainstay of the child vaccination program, something Prime Minister Scott Morrison says will provide the opportunity for family vaccinations.
States and territories will be left to decide on whether to run school-based programs.
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly says “the disease in children is much less severe than it is in adults” although more children are being infected in this year’s outbreaks.
Education Minister Alan Tudge said having all secondary children included in the rollout will disrupt transmission in schools.
Morrison and state and territory leaders on Friday received updated modelling from the Doherty Institute which underpins a national agreement to reopen gradually when vaccine coverage reaches 70 and 80 per cent.
The institute argues it would be safe to open at the vaccine targets even if there are high case numbers in the hundreds.
But top-quality use of testing, tracing, isolating, and quarantine needs to be maintained and small-scale lockdowns not ruled out even at the higher threshold.
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