Scott Morrison calls for Olympic spirit in Covid-19 vaccine rollout

The Prime Minister has implored Australians to ‘go for gold’ in the vaccine rollout, despite previously claiming it was ‘not a race’.

Scott Morrison in Canberra on Wednesday. Picture: Gary Ramage

Australia’s vaccine rollout has hit one million doses in seven days for the second consecutive week, as Scott Morrison urges the nation to “make a gold medal run” and boost up-take.

Tuesday was another record day for vaccinations, with almost 197,000 doses administered in a 24-hour period.

Nationally, 11.59 million doses have been administered, including 1.12 million in the past week.

The Prime Minister drew on an Olympics analogy as he implored Australians to “go for gold” to boost vaccination up-take, despite previously claiming that the rollout was “not a race”.

Of Australia’s eligible population – those aged over 16 – 17.19 per cent are fully vaccinated and 38.92 per cent have had a first dose.

In the over-70s age cohort, 38.44 per cent are fully vaccinated and 77.94 per cent have had a first dose. For the over-50s, 23.45 per cent are fully vaccin­ated and 63.56 per cent have had a first dose.

NSW, where large parts of the state will live under lockdown restrictions for at least another four weeks, has 17.21 per cent of its eligible population fully vaccinated, with 39.04 per cent receiving one jab. Of its over-50s population, 25.07 per cent are fully vaccinated and 62.99 per cent have had one dose. In the over-70s bracket, 39.51 per cent are fully vaccinated and 77.82 per cent have received one dose

Earlier this month, the commonwealth began publishing data showing first and second vaccination rates for each age group. It followed calls from health experts that the scarcity of publicly available data was hampering efforts to quickly control outbreaks.

Governments are not publishing nuanced data beyond the state and territory breakdowns.

In Sydney, eight hotspot local government areas are subjected to tighter lockdown restrictions.

Workers in these LGAs are unable to leave their area for work unless they are classified as an essential worker.

The council areas subjected to these rules are Parramatta, Georges River, Campbelltown, Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown, Liverpool, Cumberland and Blacktown.

The commonwealth has not published the vaccination rates for these areas or provided data on how many cases in these LGAs have received jabs.

A Department of Health spokesperson said Lieutenant General John Frewen, head of the government’s Covid vaccine taskforce, was working with states and territories to provide more nuanced vaccination data sets for locations.

“(General) Frewen is committed to transparency and ensuing any information released provides an accurate picture of Australia’s vaccine rollout,” they said.

Australian National University infectious diseases specialist Peter Collignon said that a breakdown of vaccine data by postcode or LGA would help ­direct resources and create localised communication campaigns.