Covid-19: PM secures faster flood of Pfizer vaccine doses

Australia has clinched a potentially game-changing deal to triple our access to Pfizer doses to one million a week from July 19.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison during at a press conference at Kirribilli House on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

Australia has clinched a potentially game-changing deal to triple its access to Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines to one million doses a week from July 19 as Sydney almost certainly faces another seven-day lockdown extension, with authorities struggling to contain the outbreak in the city’s southwest.

Scott Morrison on Thursday announced a dramatic acceleration of the vaccination program in Sydney – including 150,000 extra doses of Pfizer and 150,000 AstraZeneca vaccines – and ­additional financial aid for affected residents as Gladys Berejiklian warned the lockdown could be ­extended beyond next Friday if ­infection rates did not fall.

“We’re still aiming for that, don’t get me wrong, but also know that that is dependent on all of us doing the right thing,” Ms Berejiklian said. “We just need people to stop interacting for this lockdown to work, and I don’t just mean in one part of Sydney – this applies to all people and stay-at-home areas.”

One government official told The Australian that a further extension remained a distinct possibility, with the weekend’s infection data to prove a deciding factor.

The Morrison government deal with Pfizer will, from July 19, provide Australia’s supply chains with approximately one million doses a week, three times the weekly average of 300,000 to 350,000 a week in May and June.

Australia received 1.7 million Pfizer doses in June and it is ­expected to receive 2.8 million in July, and more than 4.5 million in August under the new agreement.

The dramatic scaling up of the preferred Pfizer vaccine shipments, recommended for all age groups, including young people, has the potential to change the ­entire schedule of vaccination in Australia, which has been hampered by a lack of supplies from Europe and hesitancy about the Astra Zeneca vaccine.

Under political and health pressure, the Prime Minister and Health Minister Greg Hunt have been negotiating with Pfizer to get additional doses because of the need to ramp up vaccinations, now more than 800,000 a week, and ­secure more supplies beyond Astra Zeneca, which has been subjected to changing health advice.

NSW recorded 38 new cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday, including 21 infections that were traced back to ­Sydney’s southwestern suburbs, which will see an increased police presence from Friday in a bid to curb non-compliance with the public health orders.

Announcing the vaccine acceleration for NSW and a financial aid package, the Prime Minister pleaded with NSW residents to obey stay-at-home orders.

“All I would say to the people of NSW is follow the rules; the virus doesn’t move by itself,” Mr Morrison said. “It moves from person to person, people carry it from one to another. Compliance with the ­orders that have been put in place by the NSW government could not be more critical.”

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian provides a Covid-19 update on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

The extra inoculations for NSW announced on Thursday would be prioritised for vulnerable people in the Sydney suburbs of Liverpool, Fairfield and Canterbury-Bankstown. Second doses of AstraZeneca will also be administrated after eight weeks instead of 12 in these suburbs.

Roughly half of all residents living in southwestern Sydney aged over 70 have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Mr Morrison said, adding that the additional doses procured by the commonwealth were obtained through a commercial arrangement.

“This means that these ­additional doses going into southern Sydney, in particular, will not come at the expense of the ­ongoing allocations that have been made to other states and territories,” Mr Morrison said. “We would be encouraging the eight to 12-week second dose be done at the earlier part of that period. That is consistent with medical advice.”

National cabinet will convene on Friday for discussions on vaccine strategies, international passenger arrivals, which were halved a week ago, and alternative quarantine arrangements for vaccinated Australians, including the possibility of home isolation.

During a conference call with Coalition colleagues on Thursday, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said restrictions applying to some areas of the state were being monitored for possible easing, including the NSW Central Coast, Kiama and Shellharbour, where instances of the virus and local transmissions remained ­either low or non-existent.

Mr Hazzard said the matter had been raised with him by several MPs, and while no formal decision had been made the situation remained under rolling review. One MP who partook in the call said the remarks signalled a potential easing of the restrictions; Mr Hazzard would not confirm this when contacted.

Wollondilly MP Nathaniel Smith became the third Liberal MP to publish a letter to Ms Berejiklian urging her to reconsider lockdown restrictions for his semi-rural electorate, which has not recorded a case of COVID-19 during this most recent outbreak.

“There is clearly an argument that the stay-at-home orders imposed upon the more than 6.6 million residents of Greater Sydney is a disproportionate and unnecessary measure,” he wrote.

“At the very least, it goes against the past practice of your government to limit draconian restrictions to only those areas where case numbers are at a level requiring intervention.”

Millions of extra Pfizer vaccine doses will be sent to Australia. Picture: AFP

Ms Berejiklian’s warning about possible lockdown extensions came after Mr Hazzard on Wednesday suggested that if the lockdown did not prove effective then the city would have to ­“accept that the virus has a life which will continue in the community”.

The comments prompted a warning from West Australian Premier Mark McGowan that he would consider an indefinite “hard border” with NSW until the state had eradicated the threat of Covid-19. “NSW needs to do what Victoria did last year and crush and kill the virus,” Mr McGowan said. “Any alternative approach which allows the virus to spread would imperil the whole country before such time as we have achieved mass vaccination.”

The Prime Minister said on Thursday that the $10,000 liquid asset test for the Covid-19 disaster payment would be waived for state lockdowns that enter a third week. The asset test applies to payments of $325 or $500 for Australians who have experienced a loss in working hours due to the lockdown’s impact.

The Australian Banking ­Association on Thursday announced up to three-month repayment deferrals for all small business customers and extra support for mortgage owners ­affected by current or recent lockdowns. ABA chief executive Anna Bligh said it was clear the recovery from recent lockdowns was slower than in previous cases.