LATEST COVID-19 DEVELOPMENTS:
* Australia's coronavirus vaccine rollout is facing a critical juncture as Prime Minister Scott Morrison prepares to meet with premiers and chief ministers to rejig the program.
* National cabinet on Thursday is set to thrash out details of bringing forward the rollout of AstraZeneca for people aged between 50 and 69.
* The Morrison government is battling multiple fronts over its behind-schedule rollout, which is under fire over the pace of vaccinating people with disability.
* Health Minister Greg Hunt was forced to defend the disability rollout after it emerged just 6.5 per cent of people in residential care had received a shot.
* Mr Hunt insists the plan was always to inoculate aged care residents first, despite disability being in the same phase of rollout.
* Labor's health spokesman Mark Butler took aim at the government for again missing its own targets.
* Australia could become the first country in the southern hemisphere to manufacture mRNA coronavirus vaccines.
* The Victorian government committed $50 million to establish a facility to manufacture mRNA vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna, in Melbourne.
* Acting Premier James Merlino said the facility would take at least a year to start production and conceded the final cost of the project would be "hundreds of millions of dollars", imploring his federal counterparts to pitch in.
* Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton received his first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Wednesday in an effort to boost public confidence in the jab.
* COVID-19 Minister Chris Hipkins downplayed the chances of New Zealand's latest community case impacting the trans-Tasman bubble, even if new cases emerge.
* SA Health has identified a suitable COVID-19 quarantine site for international students but the state government is still working through issues with the Commonwealth to allow their return.
* A Queensland police officer who worked in quarantine hotels has reportedly been taken to hospital with blood clots days after he received the Pfizer vaccine.
AUSTRALIAN VACCINATION NUMBERS:
* There have been 1,718,107 doses administered in the national COVID-19 vaccination rollout up to Tuesday, including 64,821 in the past 24 hours.
* Of the total, 1,039,147 have been administered by the Commonwealth (an increase of 48,765 in the past 24 hours).
* 855,609 have been doled out in primary care (+42,747), and 183,538 in aged and disability facilities (+6018).
* 678,960 have been administered by the states and territories, including 16,056 in the past 24 hours.
* 181,435 have been administered in NSW (+3702), 172,308 in Victoria (+4058), 128,555 in Queensland (+2544), 80,662 in Western Australia (+2447), 49,349 in South Australia (+1234), 30,573 in Tasmania (+1156), 22,619 in the ACT (+563), and 13,459 in the NT (+352).
AUSTRALIAN CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:
* Australia reported no locally acquired virus cases on Wednesday. There were 19 new overseas-acquired cases in quarantine: eight in NSW, three each in Victoria and the NT, two each in SA and WA, and one in Queensland.
* The national death toll is 910: Victoria 820, NSW 56, Tasmania 13, WA 9, Queensland 7, SA 4, ACT 3 (Two Queensland residents who died in NSW have been included in the official tolls of both states).
GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:
* Cases: at least 142,964,759
* Deaths: at least 3,044,475
* Recovered: at least 81,926,287.
Data current as of 1730 AEST on April 21, taking in federal and state/territory government updates and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre figures.
Australian Associated Press
