Two elderly residents were on Tuesday given four times the intended dose by a doctor who was contracted to administer the jabs as part of the federal government’s portion of the vaccine rollout.

He is facing investigation over whether he completed mandatory training and has been stood down from the vaccine rollout.

The 88-year-old man was admitted to hospital for observation and is currently showing no signs of adverse reaction.

The 94-year-old woman is being monitored in her aged care home.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the next 72 hours are crucial for the elderly pair.

She will write to Prime Minister Scott Morrison asking for a national cabinet meeting to occur as soon as possible.

“I want to know what training is being provided to the people the federal government is employing to administer the vaccines in our aged care facilities to give additional confidence,” Ms Palaszczuk told state parliament on Wednesday.

“I’ll be writing to the prime minister, (to say) that the federal government needs to give us regular updates about who they are vaccinating, and the number of people that are vaccinating, just as we give the public an update about how many people we are vaccinating.”

Healthcare workers are meant to complete online training modules before being able to administer the coronavirus vaccines, which come in multi-dose vials.

Health Minister Greg Hunt says the doctor – who is no longer involved in the vaccine rollout – had completed all necessary training but got the dosage wrong.

“The doctor involved did the wrong thing and that is a case of human error, a case of unacceptable human error,” he told parliament.

“All of the necessary required steps involving training were carried out.”

Hunt rejected the notion the incident would harm public confidence in the vaccine rollout.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd is looking into what happened and will file a report.

The home’s operator will be reporting the GP – hired by Healthcare Australia – to the national regulator, describing the incident as “extremely concerning”.

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said higher doses had also been given to residents at aged care facilities in Germany and the United Kingdom, leading to minimal side effects.

“That gives us hope,” Professor Kelly said.

Higher doses of the vaccines had also been given to people in early clinical trials, he said.

Thousands of Pfizer vaccine doses have been delivered across Australia in the first phase of the vaccination program, which targets frontline aged and disability workers and residents.

Doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine – which most Australians will receive – are on track to arrive from overseas early next month, in addition to vials being manufactured in Victoria.

The federal Department of Health is waiting to receive state and territory figures on the number of vaccines that have been administered so far.

-AAP