Victoria hoarding hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses

Hundreds of thousands of Covid vaccine doses have been hoarded by the Victorian government, even as hours-long queues for the jab mount around the state.

Victoria has held back hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 vaccines for second doses even though the Commonwealth is already storing those supplies.

As of Sunday, the state had only administered 613,000 out of 980,000 doses it had on hand, frustrating the federal government as Victoria called for extra supplies and struggled to keep up with demand during the latest outbreak.

The growing stockpile has prompted Scott Morrison to encourage the states to use up the doses they are given.

Long queues for the vaccine have formed during lockdown, while many Victorians phoning up to book in for the Pfizer vaccine have been told there are no appointments for two weeks.

Acting Premier James Merlino on Sunday said the rollout was crucial to avoiding future lockdowns.

“This is a race and we need to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible,’’ he said.

The state government is now expected to use up more of its supplies this week before the Commonwealth sends an extra 100,000 Pfizer doses to Victoria over three weeks from next Monday.

Some Victorians are facing a two week wait for the Covid jab. Picture: David Caird

Public health experts urged the governments to resolve any communication issues and prioritise the mass delivery of first doses, as other countries choose to push back the three-week waiting period to deliver second Pfizer doses.

Deliveries of the AstraZeneca vaccine — which requires a 12-week interval between doses — will also be doubled to Victorian GPs for the next fortnight.

Since the start of the rollout, the Commonwealth has held back half of each Pfizer delivery to ensure second doses were available even if international supply chains broke down.

Victoria has had at least 150,000 doses on hand for the last month, although its utilisation rate has steadily improved in recent weeks as demand increased.

By last Thursday, when state deputy chief health officer Allen Cheng indicated Victoria had a Pfizer shortage, the state had 160,000 Pfizer doses and 160,000 AstraZeneca doses available.

In Friday’s national cabinet statement, the Prime Minister declared “states and territories do not need to provision for second doses as the Commonwealth retains doses for second use”.

“States and territories are able to administer all doses supplied by the Commonwealth,” Mr Morrison said.

People line up for vaccinations at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton. Picture: David Crosling

But Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley stood firm, saying: “We want to make sure that we’ve got adequate supplies of those vaccines on hand here in Victoria when we need them.”

He denied Victoria was “on some different alignment with the Commonwealth” but said the state was concerned about the “bumpy” supply chain.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt on Sunday praised the “very strong work” of the state government during the rollout.

“This week will allow them to work through some of their existing inventory,” he said.

Clinical epidemiologist Professor Nancy Baxter, head of the University of Melbourne’s school of population and general health, warned of a “lack of understanding” between governments.

“I think everyone’s trying to do the right thing, particularly with Pfizer,” she said. “If states don’t have confidence that second doses are going to be given to them, there’s a real breakdown.”

Professor Baxter said authorities could consider relaxing the three-week Pfizer interval, as she encouraged the states to “make sure they use up their first doses”.

“If there’s more Pfizer available, everybody’s got to get lined up in terms of expectations and what’s going to happen with the second dose,” she said.

Mr Hunt said Australia would be receiving 600,000 Pfizer doses a week by late July, and half a million Pfizer doses would also be delivered this week.