The Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) is a national immunisation register that records vaccines given to all people in Australia. This includes COVID-19 vaccines, vaccines given under the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Immunisation Program (NIP), and vaccines given privately, such as for seasonal influenza or travel.
Under the Australian Immunisation Register Act 2015, it is mandatory for all vaccination providers to report the administration of COVID-19, influenza, NIP and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) vaccines to the AIR.
Legislative changes mean that from 1 March 2025, it will be mandatory for all vaccination providers to report to the AIR information about whether an individual was pregnant at the time of vaccine administration.
Maternal immunisation is critical in protecting pregnant women and their babies from serious illness and severe complications from vaccine preventable diseases.
The collection of antenatal data is important as it ensures that the AIR contains a complete and reliable dataset to enable the monitoring:
- of immunisation coverage and administration
- the effectiveness and safety of maternal vaccines and vaccination programs, such as
- the NIP
- influenza
- other respiratory vaccines.
Next steps
Vaccination providers can report antenatal information to the AIR through clinical software or the AIR site, using either the:
- antenatal indicator – the new indicator will be rolled out in clinical software throughout 2025. You should update to the latest version of your clinical software to make sure you have the latest functionality
- vaccine type field – if the new antenatal indicator is not yet available in your clinical software, you must report antenatal information to the AIR using the ‘Antenatal’ option under the ‘Vaccine type’ field.
The legislative changes do not make having a vaccine mandatory. The changes make reporting the administration of vaccinations to the AIR by vaccination providers mandatory.
