COVID-19 vaccinations: Scott Morrison pledges to get rollout ‘back on track’

After accusations of a “bungled” rollout, Scott Morrison is taking drastic action to ensure Australia’s vaccination program gets back on track.

Stung by accusations of a “bungled” vaccine rollout, the Prime Minister will convene twice-weekly meetings of the national cabinet for the foreseeable future to get the program “back on track.”

Just three days after quietly announcing on Facebook that he will abandon “targets” for the vaccine rollout — including the original pledge of delivering the vaccination of all eligible adults by the end of the year — Scott Morrison has announced the national cabinet will once again take centre-stage.

It follows pointed criticism from the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her Health Minister Brad Hazzard that the delivery of vaccines was patchy and that states were sometimes being left in the dark over supplies.

The Prime Minister said he accepted there are “serious challenges we need to overcome caused by patchy international vaccine supplies, changing medical advice and a global environment of need caused by millions of COVID-19 cases and deaths.”

“National Cabinet will convene on Monday 19 April and will meet bi-weekly for the foreseeable future until we solve the problems and get the programme back on track,’’ Mr Morrison said.

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison will convene twice-weekly meetings of the national cabinet for the foreseeable future to get the vaccine rollout program back on schedule. Picture: Julian Andrews

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“I have requested that the National Cabinet and our health ministers move back to an operational footing — to work together, closely, to tackle, head on, the challenges we are all facing with making our vaccination programme as good as it can be.

“There are issues we are trying to deal with as a federal government, and I have been upfront about those. But amongst the states and territories, they are also tackling their own unique issues and working together we are all going to be in a better position to find the best solutions.”

The National Cabinet will meet twice a week for as long as it takes to speed up the rollout of vaccines.

“We are throwing everything at these issues, uniting the nation to keep the vaccination programme safe, to get the rollout right, and to be open and transparent about how we are tracking,’’ Mr Morrison said.

The Prime Minister will argue that — while the nation is not facing the same crisis and emergency situation as the United States, Europe and the UK — he and the premiers all agree that it is urgent that we continue the rollout of the vaccination programme as quickly and as safely as possible.

Mr Morrison has blamed the failure of overseas suppliers to deliver a promised 3 million vaccine doses in the early months of the rollout as a setback that was originally not considered to have a longer-term impact once domestic supplies commenced and gathered pace.

However, the most recent medical advice to limit the AstraZeneca to over 50s, flagged last week, will have a more profound impact on the program.

The vaccine is regarded as safe and effective but the — rare — risk of blood clots needed to be weighed against the low risk to younger Australians of dying from COVID.

“This is a complex task and there are problems with the programme that we need to solve to ensure more Australians can be vaccinated safely and more quickly,’’ he said.

Earlier, Health Minister Greg Hunt warned that Australia’s international borders — shut since March 2020 — may remain closed even after the majority of Australians are vaccinated.

The problem remains that the Morrison Government hopes, but cannot yet guarantee, that vaccination will prevent transmission even if it stops people who have received the jab from getting sick.

More data is still required to test whether it also stops transmission particularly of new, virulent strains that may not be covered by existing vaccines.

“Vaccination alone is no guarantee that you can open up,” Mr Hunt said.

“If the whole country were vaccinated, you couldn’t just open the borders.

“We still have to look at a series of different factors: transmission, longevity [of vaccine protection] and the global impact — and those are factors which the world is learning about,” he said.

Qantas is still working towards international borders reopening in October, but even if this can occur there may be restrictions limiting travel to business trips and international students rather than allowing the free movement of tourists.

Originally published as COVID-19 vaccinations: Scott Morrison pledges to get rollout ‘back on track’