MLHD's Len Bruce says planning has begun for potential coronavirus vaccine rollout

Murrumbidgee Local Health District acting medical services director Len Bruce said health authorities at a state-wide and local level were planning how to conduct widespread immunisation if a COVID-19 vaccine became available.

"I can assure you that there's already planning in place about how we would conduct a mass vaccination because it's going to be something of a skill that we've not seen before," Dr Bruce said.

"So there's work underway to essentially plan how we will actually get the vaccine to everybody who needs it as quickly as possible as it becomes available."

Dr Bruce's comments came as biotechnology firm CSL announced it would begin manufacturing millions of vials of a vaccine candidate at its laboratory in Melbourne.

On November 9, CSL commenced production of the University of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, currently at an advanced stage of trials, in addition to a University of Queensland vaccine candidate it is already manufacturing.

Any vaccine that is sold in Australia will need to be approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, with the federal government hoping one will become available throughout 2021.

Dr Bruce called CSL's announcement "great news".

"Until we have a vaccine the only defence we have against COVID-19 is all the social distancing measures that we have in place," he said

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Dr Bruce said having a vaccine would be "a tremendous advantage" for health officials as it would mean protecting both the most vulnerable members of the community and frontline healthcare workers.

University of NSW School of Population Health senior lecturer Holly Seale said it was great to see progress being made on manufacturing some of the 40 vaccine candidates undergoing clinical trials.

"That's really important because it's one thing to have a vaccine avail in Australia, but what we need to also ensure is that there's equity in access and delivery," Dr Seale said.

"There's nothing to say that we wouldn't see one of the candidates rolled out next year and that's what we're all hoping for."

Dr Seale said people shouldn't expect a vaccine to be readily available in next six months and said 2021 would probably be "another year of staying closer to home".

"I think we need to be realistic here. Those who are working in the field; their estimates are more [between July and September] next year and even then when we say that a vaccine is available that won't mean it's available to all members of the public," she said.

"We need to temper our expectations around this because we need to make sure that we're protecting our most vulnerable ... first"

Dr Seal said it was too soon to discuss the logistics of how a vaccine would be distributed to regional areas of Australia such as Wagga and the wider Murrumbidgee.

Murrumbidgee Primary Health Network chief executive officer Melissa Neal said the "MPHN understands the Commonwealth is working closely with states and territories on planning for a COVID-19 vaccination program".