Victorian Premier’s dig at the Prime Minister in lockdown press conference

Victoria’s Acting Premier took a telling swipe at the PM, saying his state shouldn't be in lockdown. Now Scott Morrison has responded.

As he announced a seven-day lockdown for his state amid a growing coronavirus outbreak, Victorian Acting Premier James Merlino took a telling swipe at the federal government.

Explaining his reasoning for the snap “circuit-breaker” it was clear he was not happy with how the Prime Minister has handled the vaccination rollout and its failure to address problems in the hotel quarantine system across Australia.

The Commonwealth is handling the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine in Australia.

Mr Merlino’s comments appeared to directly blame Prime Minister Scott Morrison for the lockdown.

“The vaccine rollout has been slower than we have hoped. It’s not where we hoped it would be, it’s not where it should be,” he said. “If more people were vaccinated, we might be facing a very different set of circumstances than we are today.

“But sadly we are not. If we make the wrong choice now, if we wait too long, this thing will get away from us.”

He said there’s only one path to defeating this pandemic — the “successful rollout of the

Commonwealth’s vaccine program, and an alternative to hotel quarantine, particularly for those who are very, very high risk”.

“Until we get to that point, until we have successfully rolled out the Commonwealth’s vaccine program, and we’re stepping up where we can,” he said.

The Victorian Acting Premier, James Merlino. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Mr Morrison responded to Mr Merlino’s comments by saying his assertion the lockdown could have been avoided by having more people vaccinated is “hard to marry with international experience”.

He pointed to nations like Singapore where cases are surging, despite more than one-third of the population having received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

“It’s hard to reconcile that with the international experience,” he said of Mr Merlino’s comments.

“When you look at countries around the world, which had far worse Covid experiences, and of course, entered into the vaccination program in emergency measures, well before Australia, whether it is in France, Canada, particularly now in Singapore, it’s hard to marry that with international experience.”

He said the Victorian outbreak is a further reminder to Australians about the importance of getting vaccinated.

Scott Morrison has responded to the comments.

“What we have also learnt to the course of Covid is there is no simple one measure that provides any guarantee of certainty here, it requires all of these measures working together, but more importantly it requires governments to work together, patiently and cooperatively, and for Australians to work together to ensure we overcome this latest challenge,” he said.

Vaccine eligibility expanded in Victoria

Victoria has today extended the eligibility for people who can get a vaccine. Now anyone over 40 in Victoria can book to get a Pfizer vaccine.

“But this is the Commonwealth’s vaccine program, they’re responsible for supply, right now, we’ve got the supply we need, and that’s why we’re making the call to everyone. No-one – no-one wants to be where we are today,” he said. “But this is highly infectious, and it is running at a super quick pace.”

He explained why he held the federal government responsible.

“We have a number of reasons why the Commonwealth’s vaccine rollout has been delayed. And it has been delayed. That is a fact,” he said.

“We should be at a much higher level, in terms – in terms of the number of people vaccinated than today.

“These are supply issues the Commonwealth is responsible for, securing, procuring, and then delivering the supply, so that’s been one of problem. And of course the changes that were announced in regards to AstraZeneca, had a hit on public confidence.”

He said another problem is people have got to be willing to be vaccinated.

“As Professor Sutton and other public health experts said, these vaccines are safe. And these vaccines, if people get vaccinated, it keeps our community safe. We would not be in this position that we are today, this necessary and difficult position, that we are today, if our vaccination rates were much higher than they are right now,” he said.

He urged Victorians over 40 to book their jab

“My message to all Victorians is if you are eligible, make yourself a plan to do that today, and get it done,” he said.

chief health officer, Brett Sutton. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

“You will be able to book if you’re in that category by calling the coronavirus hotline, or if you are – if you wish to, and you’re over 50, you can continue to walk up to any of the centres and get the AstraZeneca vaccine like I and many of my friends and family have.”

Problems in hotel quarantine

Chief health officer Brett Sutton said it was for the South Australian government to speak to about what went wrong in hotel quarantine — leading to Victoria’s current outbreak.

However, he said we’ve seen too many problems with the system across Australia.

“My understanding is that it is airborne transmission through the corridor, as we have seen too many times,” he said.

“It happens when doors open in quick succession. That is something we have tried to mitigate in Victoria as much as possible with filtered air purifiers in corridors with a minimum standard of negative pressure to drive out back into rooms and not out into corridors.

“That is something that I think is a lesson for hotel quarantine across the board.”

He said hotels are not the ideal structural environment to keep people.

“In terms of that individual living quarantine and coming to Victoria, that is a normal process. People who finish their quarantine are free to go into any jurisdiction. We do have a policy in

Victoria,” he said.

“It is reflected in SA as well, of giving people a prompt to get an additional test at day 17 – in Victoria at day 21 and I think that individual got a prompt from the SA authorities but you would have to go to them.”