As countries rush to vaccinate their population against coronavirus, Australia is looking at millions to be paid as compensation for vaccine-related injuries. According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, thousands have registered to claim compensation under the federal government’s no-fault indemnity scheme.

Over 10,000 people are likely to claim compensation for lost income after being hospitalised due to rare side effects from Covid-19 vaccine jabs. The compensation that begins at A$5,000 will include medical costs and lost wages to be paid by the government.

According to Bloomberg, the program would cost at least A$50 million ($37 million) should each claim be approved. Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has received almost 79,000 reports of adverse side-effects from 36.8 million doses of vaccine, according to its website. The most frequently reported side effects include a sore arm, headache, fever and chills.

The TGA has received 288 reports assessed as likely to be heart inflammation linked to the Pfizer Inc. vaccine, as well as 160 of rare clotting disorder thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) linked to the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine. Nine deaths have been linked to the immunization program, the overwhelming majority of whom were aged 65 years and older, according to the TGA.

The registrations opened on the health department’s website in September, which also covers people who experienced a moderate to significant adverse reaction resulting in a hospital stay of at least one night. Meanwhile, claimants seeking $20,000 or less will need to submit evidence of their injury and its relationship to coronavirus vaccination, medical costs and lost wages.

The Australian government is yet to release guidelines around what standard of proof will be required to establish that the person’s injury was caused by the vaccine.

Australia has so far administered 37,846,128 Covid-19 vaccine doses. According to the Department of Health, 90.7 per cent of people aged 16 and above have received at least one dose of the vaccine, meanwhile, 83.5 per cent of people aged 16 and over have had their second dose.

The country is likely to begin administering the shots for children under the age of 12 in January. Health Minister Greg Hunt said medical regulators are still reviewing the health and safety data for the vaccinations for children, adding “The expectation that they have set is the first part of January, hopefully, early January.”

The country has reported 1,90,604 infections since the beginning of the pandemic with 1,888 deaths. The health department reported 20,622 active cases across the country with 615 people hospitalised with the infection.