Greg Hunt shuns state ask for ADF shot shops

The federal Health Minsiter has ignored requests from the NSW government for Defence personnel to establish special vaccination centres in Sydney’s west and southwest.

Lockdown shoppers buying essential fruit at a grocery store in Cabramatta, in Sydney’s southwest on Sunday. Picture: Stephen Cooper

Greg Hunt has ignored requests from the NSW government for Defence personnel to establish special vaccination centres in Sydney’s west and southwest.

The Australian has confirmed the federal Health Minister’s NSW counterpart, Brad Hazzard, wrote to Mr Hunt on August 11 requesting the Australian Defence Force open vaccination centres in Sydney and in the state’s west.

While Mr Hunt acknowledged Mr Hazzard’s request two days later, and said the matter had been referred to Defence, the commonwealth had yet to provide a formal response.

The revelation came as 12 of NSW’s hardest-hit local government areas prepared for the introduction of even tighter Covid constraints, including 9pm to 5am curfews, from midnight on Monday as state health officials struggle to contain its ever-worsening coronavirus outbreak.

Mr Hazzard said a record 830 NSW residents had tested positive for the pathogen in the 24 hours to 8pm Saturday, with the vast majority coming from hotspots in Sydney’s Covid-ravaged western and southwestern suburbs.

Of the cases announced on Sunday, only 137 were linked to a known case or cluster – 118 were household contacts and 19 were close contacts; the source of 693 infections remained unknown.

As the surge takes the NSW outbreak beyond the peak of last year’s second wave in Victoria, a further three people died from the disease, bringing NSW’s total number of Covid-related fatalities to 71; 550 people are being treated for the virus in the state’s hospitals.

Commonwealth officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, accused the NSW government of leaking the letter and “playing politics”, noting ADF-run vaccination hubs had been established in the state’s west, where access points were limited.

The officials also said NSW health authorities had dismissed the need for similar hubs in Greater Sydney – as requested in Mr Hazzard’s letter – because there was “ample access to vaccinations at GP clinics and pharmacies littered across the city”.

The Australian understands NSW Health and NSW police made it clear to federal officials they thought it was unnecessary to divert ADF from operations to run dedicated vaccination clinics when there were already more than 2000 GPs, pharmacies and commonwealth centres doing this.

The revelation that pleas for assistance on the vaccination program in Sydney’s west and southwest have been ignored by the commonwealth will damage the increasingly frosty relations between Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

Senior figures in the Berejiklian government are convinced the federal government is seeking to distance itself from the failure to lock down Sydney sooner.

Senior figures in the Morrison government believe their state colleagues are trying to avoid responsibility by claiming failures with the vaccine rollout are to blame for the crisis enveloping the state.

The commonwealth responded to the request for ADF help in and around Dubbo within 24 hours, commissioning 50 Defence personnel for community support and compliance and five ADF medical teams of up to 14 members each across western NSW.

Ausmat and the Royal Flying Doctor Service are operating as part of the western NSW joint response and 300 Defence personnel are on the ground in the city’s west as part of a joint operation with NSW police.

Mr Hazzard said health officials would continue to closely monitor the Sydney hotspots at the centre of the escalating outbreak and would consider applying strict new curfews and regulations to more LGAs if required to help bring the spread of the disease under control.

He said they would also consider lifting restrictions from areas no longer considered a concern. “Everything is on the table but in regard to those LGAs, particularly the ones with the greatest number of cases … 80 per cent of all cases to 8pm last night came from those LGAs (of concern),” he said.

“The entire public health team and police are constantly working with us to look at what we could do in regards to those areas that have a consistent zero (transmissions).

“I am advised that, in fact, NSW is now amongst the highest, if not the highest, in the world in terms of vaccination rates..

“We are now seeing on any one day up to about 50,000 people are being vaccinated in our state hubs … it takes us to almost 58 per cent of NSW residents who have had their first dose of vaccine. And almost 31 per cent have had two doses. We want to drive our vaccination rates up more quickly, even though we may well be the fastest in the world at the present time.”