An extra 380,000 people are now eligible for a COVID-19 booster after 16- and 17-year-olds were given the final green light to receive their third dose.
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The country's leading advisory group on immunisations gave the second and final approval for the booster shots, with teenagers being eligible from Thursday.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said the approval would allow for more people to be better protected against the Omicron variant.
"Those doses are in the field. They're the same doses as the adult doses," Mr Hunt told reporters in Canberra.
"They're available, and that is the group that has now passed three months since they've had their second doses."
Previously, only Australians 18 and older had been eligible to receive a booster dose.
The latest vaccination figures have shown 88.2 per cent of all 16- to 19-year-olds have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The president of the Royal Australasian College of General Practitioners, Karen Price, said the booster approval for teenagers was much welcomed.
However, she said the decision added another layer of work for the nation's doctors.
"We are flat out delivering kids' vaccines, which is more time-intensive and complicated compared to adults, as well as boosters and taking care of our day-to-day caseload," Dr Price said.
"If we are to continue as the backbone of the vaccine rollout, we really need more support from the federal government."
It comes as health officials indicate the definition of fully vaccinated could be changed to include being boosted before a possible wave of COVID-19 cases in winter.
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said the definition could move to being "up to date" with COVID shots being offered.
"I think that is the parlance we will start to use," he said.
"The whole world is moving towards three doses as being important because of the Omicron strain."
Professor Kelly said there would likely be a grace period for people to get their booster in order to be classified as fully vaccinated, once the definition was changed.
Australia has surpassed 8.4 million booster shots, or just under 70 per cent of those eligible, administering more than 200,000 third doses a day.
But a third of people in aged care are yet to receive their boosters despite vaccination teams visiting 99 per cent of aged care facilities to offer the third dose.
It remains unknown how many of the more than 1100 aged care residents died with COVID-19 from December 15 to the end of January had received a booster.
Prof Kelly also warned another outbreak would likely hit during the colder months and would be complemented by the flu season, the likes of which Australia hasn't seen since the pandemic began.
"We are learning to live with this virus, and that means that we have to have realistic expectations of what will happen this year," he said.
"I do believe that we will have another wave of Omicron in winter and I think we will have a flu wave in winter for the first time since the beginning of 2020."
Australia recorded one of its deadliest COVID-19 days on Thursday, with 83 fatalities reported across the country.
The majority were recorded in NSW and Victoria, which had 38 and 34 deaths respectively, while there were nine in Queensland and one each in South Australia and Tasmania.
Case numbers of COVID-19 remained relatively stable, with 36,229 new infections nationally.
Australian Associated Press
