Coronavirus Australia: Jurisdictions with best and worst COVID-19 vaccine usage revealed

The Australian jurisdictions with the best and worst COVID-19 vaccine use in the country have been revealed.

New data has revealed the jurisdictions with the best and worst COVID-19 vaccine use in the county.

Figures revealed by the federal government show South Australia had only used 57 per cent of its 79,990 available doses, making it the worst in the nation.

SA Health Minister Stephen Wade defended the rollout and said its speed was closely aligned with its share of the national population.

He said 6.7 per cent of doses were administered compared with SA’s share of the national population, which is 6.9 per cent.

“This is a far better indicator of how our vaccine rollout is tracking,” Mr Wade said.

“The amount of vaccines South Australia has administered in the past 24 hours is well above our proportion of the national population, as we administered more doses than any other state other than Victoria.

“Opening more clinics across the state where they are needed, as well as establishing a vaccination hub at the Adelaide Showgrounds, will help us to further scale up our rollout in the coming weeks.”

Health Minister Stephen Wade (pictured getting his first COVID-19 vaccination) said the amount of vaccines SA administered in the past 24 hours was ’well above’ its proportion of the national population. Picture: Brenton Edwards

But SA Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said South Australians couldn’t afford to be the slowest in the nation because many people were relying on the process to return the economy back to normal in order to find employment.

He said the state government’s delay in opening the max vaccination hub at the Adelaide Showgrounds would exacerbate the problem.

“There’s not much point in the SA government receiving vaccines and doing nothing with them,” Mr Malinauskas said.

Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton said there was an issue with vaccine supply around the country except for SA, and having vaccines “sitting in the fridge” provided no community protection for lockdowns in future.

“They need to be used to vaccinate our frontline workers, vulnerable groups in our community and people desperately wanting a vaccine but can’t do so,” he said.

The administration and utilisation numbers for Australia's vaccine rollout. Picture: Federal Department of Health

The data, which were published online on Monday night, also showed the ACT and Tasmania both used up all of their allocated jabs.

The national average was 72 per cent, with all other jurisdictions hovering around that figure except for WA, which used 82 per cent of their doses.

As of April 11, there had been 616,568 of commonwealth vaccines administered across Australia.

Of that total, NSW used 151,535 jabs, making it the most in the nation, while the NT had the least amount used with 10,578.

The total number of vaccines used across the nation. Picture: Federal Department of Health

Currently, Australia has vaccine agreements with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Novavax, but it has ruled out using Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine as part of its rollout.

The single-use jab has been administered across the US and approved for use in Europe.

Last week, top Australian medical experts advised people aged under 50 to no longer be given AstraZeneca because of links to rare blood clotting.

The government also announced it had also doubled its Pfizer vaccine supply to 40 million doses, with the additional 20 million due to arrive from October.

Australia’s chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly said the goal was to get Aussies vaccinated “as quickly as possible”.