Coronavirus Australia: national cabinet to meet over vaccination rollout

Federal Health minister says rollout unchanged as premiers voice concern over vaccine supply amid new advice on AstraZeneca.

Nurses prepare Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines in a Melbourne hospital. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

National cabinet will meet on Monday as concerns grow about the supply of vaccines after the Federal Government changed its advice on dispensing AstraZeneca.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt on Friday announced that once the Prime Minister returns from G7 a meeting would take place.

It comes as Victorian and NSW premiers raised concerns over vaccine supply at press conferences on Friday, with Victorian Acting Premier James Merlino saying Australia was “falling behind in the vaccine race”.

“This morning, Lieutenant-General John Frewen and myself and the team from Health briefed the Prime Minister on his return (from the G7),” he said.

“His first order of business was to have a vaccination briefing. And the critical thing is he will be calling a meeting of the national cabinet — most probably on Monday, subject to the availability of the premiers and chief ministers — to discuss the rollout.”

No changes: Hunt

Despite the recent change in recommending the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to only those aged 60 over, Mr Hunt said he expects no changes to the rollout.

“The volume of vaccines coming into Australia hasn’t changed, and, you know, it’s important to understand we have 40 million Pfizer, we have over 50 million AstraZeneca that we’re expecting to be made available, 10 million Moderna and then there’s potential for Novavax,” he said.

“That means that we will have, you know, a very large number of vaccines that are available in Australia.”

Mr Hunt added that he hopes that those “who were not intending to be vaccinated in the near term, may well choose to be vaccinated”.

More than 6.6 million or 25.9 per cent of Australians have received a Covid-19 vaccine since the rollout began. That includes 64 per cent of Australians over the age of 70 and 47 per cent of those over 50.

Mr Hunt also announced that he had signed off on a Medicare item to encourage more over 50s to get vaccinated.

Rollout head expects drop in jab rates

Meanwhile, General John Frewen, head of the Operation Covid Shield, confirmed there is an expected drop in vaccination rates because of the Pfizer supply concerns.

“We also now think that what is likely to happen in the near term is that we will see a likely temporary reduction in daily vaccination rates, as people make informed decisions around what they want to do in light of the Atagi announcement, they then change their bookings and they then get access to a Pfizer provision point,” he said.

“But this potential reduction should be short-term and then we would see a return to the more regular daily vaccination rates.

Australia ‘falling behind in vaccine race’: Merlino

Acting Victorian premier James Merlino pulled no punches as he announced one new locally transmitted Covid case in Victoria on Friday, saying Australia is falling behind in the vaccination race.”

He said he believes there is not a strong federal government public campaign encouraging vaccinations, “because there isn’t the supply to match it ”.

“It must be because the commonwealth do not have confidence in their supply to match the demand that will be generated by such a campaign,” he said.

“The fact is, from today there is going to be a public hit of confidence in terms of AstraZeneca and we have got less Pfizer to give at a time we have got increasing demand.

“We are falling behind in this race.

“The Commonwealth do not have the supplies of Pfizer to meet the demand, supplies of second doses to match the demand for first doses. We have to balance the demand as best we can.”

Berejiklian ‘concern’ about supply

Earlier, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian trod a more diplomatic line, but admitted to concern about NSW vaccine supply.

“If we had more vaccines we would be getting them into arms. That is the bottom line,” she said.

“I have a sense of urgency about New South Wales it is and is getting access to a vaccine. I pushed it to make sure we had [vaccines] accessible for workers, a push to make sure New South Wales Health would step up and help with the rollout.

“Can I stress how grateful we are to the GP network? The GP network needs more doses and is craving more doses and we rely on them to get the jabs in arms.

“And of course New South Wales Health is breaking records every week in how many we are managing to do as well, but we are limited by the doses we get and that is something I can’t control.

“But we are looking forward to getting more doses in the next few weeks which is the advice we have received from the commonwealth.”