Coronavirus: Scott Morrison flags ‘mass vaccination options’

Scott Morrison suggests mass vaccination for the under-50s, adds it may be possible that age group could be immunised by year end.

Scott Morrison has flagged “mass vaccination options” for Australians aged under 50 and says it may be possible that age group could be immunised by the end of the year.

The Prime Minister said the rollout, which initially was expected to see all Australians receive their first jab by October, “has to change because of events” linked to supply issues and the rare blood clots associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine in under 50s.

“That will mean we’ll need to change our rollout to go to mass vaccination options and that will have to be done in partnership with the states and territories,” Mr Morrison told The West Live podcast.

“If we can do all that, then there is the possibility that can be achieved by the end of 2021 but at this stage there are too many uncertainties I think to commit to a timetable like that, I would need and states would need to be sure they could put those arrangements in place and ramp them up and to do that safely with the population to achieve that.”

Mr Morrison also said there would be potentially large numbers of COVID-19 cases when Australia lifts its international border and the country will need to be “confident and comfortable” the reopening is in the national interest.

The Prime Minister also said if Australia wanted the coronavirus treated like the flu, we needed the same level of tolerance for both diseases.

“People get the flu,” he told The West Live.

“There would be cases of COVID if the international borders were lifted. There would be cases and we’d have to be confident and comfortable that that would be in Australia’s interest to have potentially large numbers of cases of COVID knowing that it would not lead to the horrific outcomes that we saw particularly in Victoria when the second wave ripped through particularly Melbourne (because of the vaccine rollout).

“They are real legitimate questions that need to be worked through with states and territories. There’s a lot of focus on the daily number of cases both by state governments, their chief health officers and their premiers, but also by the media.

“We would need to be of one mind that if we were to go to those steps later in the year or soon after then (to reopen the international border), there’d have to an appreciation that that would come with case numbers for COVID in Australia.

“We would have to be understanding of what that meant and the goal right now is to make sure our most vulnerable are protected from any possible outbreaks. We never have 100 per cent certainty against that.”