Victoria, Queensland trail nation on vaccine rollout, data shows

Queensland and Victoria trail the rest of the nation in administering COVID-19 vaccines, new data has revealed.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jono Searle

Queensland and Victoria are lagging behind the rest of the nation in administering COVID-19 vaccines as state premiers demand more certainty on future doses from the Prime Minister.

New data from the federal health department shows Victoria administered only 30 per cent of the available doses at state Pfizer hubs to quarantine and hospital workers in the past week, while Queensland — where two people were injected with four times the recommended amount — only administered 22 per cent.

Both NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Queensland leader Annastacia Palaszczuk are now calling on the federal government to provide them with more data on the number of doses which will arrive in Australia at the end of the month.

But Health Minister Greg Hunt said Pfizer had yet to tell the government how many doses they would deliver in week four of the vaccine rollout. Mr Hunt said the recent arrival of AstraZeneca doses in Australia and greater numbers of the Pfizer vaccine would see more Australians being vaccinated in the next few weeks.

“Over the course of the next week with the arrival of Astra­Zeneca and additional Pfizer, the country is scaling up,” he said. “It is over 30,000. Soon it’ll be up to a million and two million. It is about protecting all Australians, but in particular older Australians.”

According to the Health Department, NSW has used 75 per cent of the doses available in its state Pfizer hub while the commonwealth has used 72 per cent of the doses assigned for aged care residents and workers.

Mr Hunt spoke to Ms Berejiklian on Monday after she ­accused the federal government of not giving NSW enough information on how many doses of the vaccine would arrive after March. “We’d like some certainty. We have been given a rough idea. ­Beyond week four, we are waiting for that information,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“We need to know exactly what those doses will be so that we can invite people to come and get the vaccine. The online booking system we have been running relies on us advising people that they can get the vaccine.”

The demand for information from Ms Berejiklian came after the federal government failed to meet its aim to have 60,000 people vaccinated by the end of February, with only half that figure receiving a jab.

The rollout was slowed after a GP gave four times the recommended dose of the Pfizer vaccine to two aged-care residents in Brisbane after failing to complete his training.

Ms Palaszczuk also demanded more clarity from the government and said Queensland and Canberra needed to start working together on the rollout.

Victoria administered only 30 per cent of the available doses at state Pfizer hubs to quarantine and hospital workers in the past week. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Daniel Pockett

“I’ve always maintained the federal government have to guarantee supply. There is no certainty around the supply of vaccines to states from the federal government,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

NSW will receive 80,000 doses in the next 10 days to help it meet its target for the first phase, in which aged-care residents and workers, and quarantine staff are prioritised.

A spokesman for Mr Hunt said Pfizer had not yet told the federal government how many doses were due to arrive from overseas at the end of March.

“Once that has been received it will be immediately shared with the states,” he said. “The minister had a constructive discussion with (Ms Berejiklian on Monday) morning and she was grateful for the confirmation of the 80,000 doses, ­including 14,000 arriving over the next 24 hours.”

Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid questioned the government’s goal to get all Australians vaccinated by October. “It will be a challenge … in that time frame. You’ve heard the Prime Minister (previously) saying by the end of the year. That is a more realistic target,” he said.

ANU infectious diseases specialist Peter Collignon said the most important goal was to get all vulnerable people vaccinated “before winter, when are at the highest risk of another wave”.