Berejiklian pleads with federal government over NSW COVID vaccine rollout
The NSW Premier has urged the federal government to accept help with the COVID vaccine rollout from the states after it was revealed Australia is 3.5 million doses behind schedule.
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The NSW Premier is pleading with the federal government to allow the states to help with the COVID vaccine rollout, saying it is a “simple message.”
Australia is 3.5 million doses behind schedule with health experts calling for states to take over injections, track down global supplies and radically ramp up mass vaccination clinics if the Morrison Government cannot improve on its shambolic rollout.
In a rare show of alliance, Gladys Berejiklian, Health Minister Brad Hazzard and their Queensland counterparts called out the federal government on Tuesday for misleading information that NSW and other states hadn’t administered all the shots it had been given.
“I say to those [federal] ministers: The NSW Government has done nothing but support you during this process. We’re always worked with you … let’s continue that,” she urged on Channel 9.
“Don’t denigrate the work we’ve done. Don’t denigrate the frontline staff who are working night and day to get those vaccines out.
“Let us help you. Pretty simple message, I hope they’re listening.”
Six million Aussies should be vaccinated by May, Prime Ministers Scott Morrison has promised, which means 170,000 people per day on average per day would have to be vaccinated.
But since GPs began the shots last Monday the rate is just a fifth of what is required at 31,000 jabs per day.
Only 500,000 doses will be supplied by the federal government each week for the next 3.5 weeks.
Ms Berejiklian said she wanted to help administer “tens of thousands of vaccines a week” to NSW residents through the federal government’s “GP network”.
“If we don’t help the Commonwealth, they will not be able to meet their own deadlines.
“As a state, NSW has been asked to do 300,000 vaccines. We’ve done 100,000 already.
“We’re a third of the way through and when we finish the 300,000 we’ve been asked to do, because there’s around six million people in NSW that need to get vaccinated, we’re saying to the Commonwealth: Let us help you. Which they haven’t agreed to.”
Many experts say the current design of the GP rollout means there are nowhere near enough shots for the entire population and we will “miss the window of zero infections” and “people won’t be coming back next year”.
They’re calling on the government to look at mass clinics being run overseas in venues such as sports stadiums and cathedrals in the UK and drive-by clinics in the US, as well as creating consumer-friendly apps.
Ms Berejiklian said on Thursday that NSW is “ready to go” with 100 vaccine hubs set up across the state, despite the federal government not agreeing to that.
And there’s growing frustration and confusion among local doctors and the general public about when they’ll receive the jab, with cases such as Sydney inner-city residents suffering from diabetes being told they have to wait another 14 weeks for the vaccine.
But federal Health Minister Greg Hunt rubbished Ms Berejiklian’s claims this morning, telling Channel 9 the government was working “very closely” with the Premiers.
“All states and territories have a 12 week plan and all states and territories have been receiving doses in accordance with that 12 week plan,” Mr Hunt said.
“We would encourage them to be making use of all the doses, but we’re not frustrated or grumpy with any of the states or territories, we think they’re doing their job.”
The Health Minister also took aim at criticisms of Australia’s comparatively slow vaccination rollout, declaring he “didn’t accept” the comparison. against other nations like Britain or the United States.
“We put in place sovereign vaccine manufacturing capable of 50 million doses, it was impossible to do it and yet we’ve done it.”
“That’s what’s allowing us to ramp up with strong certainty of continuous supply and that’s what’s going to protect Australians.”
The University of NSW’s Professor Bill Bowtell said “if the Federal Government isn’t able to handle supply questions and able to get people who can handle logistics, distribution then the states should take that over”.
“What is happening is very serious supply shortages and no plan to up the supply,” he said.
“I think we must look very closely at trying to source internationally and increase supplies with Pfizer or the Moderna or Johnson and Johnson vaccines.
“And if the federal government won’t do that, then the state governments ought to.
“Where is the urgency and mobilisation and organisation required to do this? The PM said there would be four million doses by today and they’ve managed to do 500,000 — 10 per cent.”
He said while Mr Morrison said “we are not in a race”, Prof Bowtell responded that “in fact yes we are”.
“The virus is racing ahead,” he said.
“Look at the case in Port Stephens where the GPs said they could do 5000 a week and they’re getting 50 vials a week.”
The Australian Medical Association has also criticised what it called “unnecessary delays” in the rollout.
“There is no excuse for (vaccines) to be sitting in fridges and freezers,” AMA boss Dr Omar Khorshid said.
Grattan Institute health expert Dr Stephen Duckett said the problems with international supply chains highlighted by the PM can be blamed for part of the problem but “there’s another million doses in the country which aren’t in people’s arms”.
“We could be doing much much better than we are,” he said. “You just can’t do a mass vaccination strategy through general practice. You have to do mass vaccination centres.
“My daughter is in the UK and they’re using cathedrals and stadiums.”
He argues there are three serious problems with a slow rollout — including breaches in quarantine, the issue of new variants coming in and thirdly, the longer we take to vaccinate, the longer it will take to open up the economy.
“It’s not as if it’s a surprise, we’ve had a long time to prepare for this.”
Brisbane resident and veteran George Hulse, 78, and wife Beverley, 72, tried to access the jab a month ago but were told to wait until mid-April because of a “short supply”.
“They can’t do it … as they did not have any vaccines in the fridge,” he said. “I was told my best option is to wait until mid-April.”
He said the Queensland cluster “demonstrates the need to get this roll out going.”
Werris Creek resident Maureen Ireland said her town was supposed to be a vaccination hub but that has not materialised.
“It never happened, doctors are saying we did not have the facilities to store it,” she said.
Tamworth mum Lena Geppert is worried about how there’s no approvals for vaccines for children yet, as her 10-year-old son has a genetic heart condition and can’t get it.
“We are lucky we live in Tamworth and we haven’t had any cases for months,” she said. “But as soon as there are any cases around, I pull him out of school and his brother.”
Sydney eastern suburbs GP Dr Barri Phatarfod did not want to be critical of the program, but said many patients were confused and Australia has not capitalised “on our good fortune”.
Melbourne GP Joe Garra, whose clinic receives just 50 doses a week, is calling on the federal government to allow a group of doctors to band together to open their own vaccination hub.
Along with 15 other nearby doctors, Dr Garra wants to use a local public building and set up a larger clinic to speed up the rollout.
“We are working all the solutions around doing it safely and not wasting vaccine doses,” he said.
VACCINATION TALLY
February 21
Morrison vaccinated
February 24
vaccine rollout started phase 1A
March 11
More than 125,000 vaccinated (including 35,900 Australians living in 388 residential aged care and disability facilities)
March 14
164,437 vaccines delivered
March 19
226,290 vaccines delivered (45,000 people in 450 aged care and residential disability facilities)
March 22
Phase 1B starts with GPs brought in to give people the jab
March 26
408,410 vaccines delivered (71,700 in aged care and disability facilities)
March 29
541,000 vaccines delivered
March 30
670,349 people in total vaccinated (including 99,000 people in 848 aged care facilities).
PHASE 1A: WHO’S ELIGIBLE
Phase 1 began February 21. This is who is eligible:
■ Quarantine and border workers: 70,000
■ Frontline healthcare workers subgroups for prioritisation: 100,000
■ Aged care and disability care staff: 318,000
■ Aged care and disability care residents: 190,000
Total: 678,000, up to 1.4 million doses
PHASE 1B: WHO’S ELIGIBLE
Phase 2 began March 22. This is who is eligible:
■ Adults aged 80 years and over: 1,045,000
■ Adults aged 70-70 years: 1,858,000
■ Other healthcare workers: 953,000
■ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over 55: 87,000
■ Adults with an underlying medical condition, including those with a disability: 2,000,000
■ Critical and high-risk workers including defence, police, fire, emergency services and meat processing: 196,000
Total: 6,139,000, up to 14.8 million doses
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