Dan Andrews appears to blame Scott Morrison for cancelled Covid vaccine bookings

Dan Andrews has appeared to blame the Prime Minister after thousands of vaccine bookings were cancelled in Victoria.

Dan Andrews has appeared to blame Prime Minister Scott Morrison over thousands of Covid-19 vaccine appointments being cancelled in Victoria.

The Victorian Premier revealed on Monday that 10,000 bookings a day for the Covid jab were being cancelled or people were not showing up, which was “double what it was a week ago”.

“There were announcements made last week and within hours we saw people cancelling that bookings,” Mr Andrews said.

“I do not have any power about those announcements. I cannot change that. I am not even bothering to be critical of that because I cannot change it.”

The announcement Mr Andrews was referring to was the Prime Minister revealing Australians aged under 40 would be eligible for the Pfizer vaccine from the end of August.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews urged people not to cancel their vaccine bookings. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

Despite the significance of the announcement, several state and territory leaders have claimed they were given no prior warning from the Prime Minister.

Mr Andrews said he had no data on why the appointments were being cancelled, only that it had doubled in the last week.

“I don’t know that we necessarily get high quality reasons out of people when they don’t show up or cancel,” he said.

Dan Andrews was critical of the way Prime Minister Scott Morrison made the announcement. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

“We don’t have a long conversation with them, it is probably electronic and they just cancel.”

Mr Andrews urged Australians not to cancel their AstraZeneca appointments over a vaccine that might be available to them in a few weeks.

“People have to turn up. You have an appointment, use it today because there is an actual shot in your arm today and it is far preferable than a booking in a few weeks time,” he said.

“There’s 50,000 plus available (bookings) for Pfizer and AstraZeneca this week at our state hubs plus activities in pharmacies, GPs, right across the board, but let’s focus on the things we can change, and what we can change is the number of people not showing up.

The Pfizer vaccine will be available to all Australians aged under 40 on August 30. Picture: AFP

“Hopefully, that can be driven down and hopefully all those unfulfilled appointments can be snapped up.”

More than 30 per cent of Australians aged 16 and older have now been fully vaccinated, while the population with at least one dose has just ticked over 52 per cent.

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Originally published as Dan Andrews appears to blame Scott Morrison for cancelled Covid vaccine bookings