Extract from The Guardian
Despite trumpeting a ‘ramp up’ of Pfizer doses, Scott Morrison refuses to say just how many vaccines will arrive in Australia in coming weeks.
Last modified on Fri 9 Jul 2021 18.49 AEST
The federal government will roll out a vaccination advertising campaign from Sunday, almost six months after the program began, the prime minister announced after Friday’s national cabinet meeting. But Scott Morrison still can’t say just how many Pfizer doses Australia is to receive in the coming weeks as part of the “ramp up” announced on Friday morning, or when under-40s will become eligible to be vaccinated.
The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer says there is no change in the number of doses the company has contracted to deliver to Australia over 2021 – contradicting media reports asserting the Morrison government had secured a “game-changing deal” to triple its access to the jabs.
“I never said there were additional doses. They are bring forward doses,” Morrison told reporters after Friday’s national cabinet meeting.
Morrison, who faces sustained political pressure about the slow pace of the rollout, argued one of the factors creating difficulty was changing advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) on who should be given the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“… We’ve been bringing forward the doses, which is what we have been seeking to do, and the reason we have had to bring forward those doses is because of the Atagi advice on AstraZeneca, which limited the use of the vaccine, which was to be the workhorse of the vaccination program, and so since we have the advice and since the impact has been made on the vaccination program, it has been our priority to work with Pfizer to bring forward the doses that we contracted and we’ve been successful in doing that,” he said.
But there has been no change to when under-40s may become eligible to be vaccinated.
Morrison said: “I will leave that to Lt Gen [John] Frewen and it will be based on the medical advice and as he is rolling those out to meet the priorities of the vaccination program, which as I said is the most vulnerable of the population which is the over-70s.”
Frewen was not present at the press conference to be asked.
After Friday’s conversation with the premiers and chief ministers, Morrison announced a number of incremental changes to Australia’s pandemic response, including an agreement to mandate vaccinations for aged care workers.
“I had accommodation among all states and territories except for Victoria today that they will introduce public health orders to mandate the vaccine for all aged care workers. In Victoria it is not a decision of the premier, it is under the chief health officer of Victoria,” he said.
“They are the only person authorised to put in place a public health order. I will refer you to the chief health officer in Victoria regarding mandating vaccines for aged care workers.”
Disability care workers won’t be subject to the same compulsory vaccination rules at this stage, but vaccines will be “strongly” recommended, Morrison said.
The nation’s leaders also agreed to start looking at home quarantine for returned travellers, with South Australia, which is pushing for a return of international students, putting up its hand to hold the trial – but there was no detail on when that could occur.
“South Australia have only indicated at today’s meeting that they intend to host the pilot and so we will work with them now to set up a timeframe of how that will be put together and transparency arrangements for the other states and territories,” Morrison said.
“I think this is an important development. I think it’s trialling out these new quarantine arrangements, which will take significant pressure off, if it’s successful.”
Australia has slashed the number of returned travellers it is accepting back into the country in response to the Delta variant of Covid, with the nation’s only dedicated quarantine facility in Howard Springs only able to accommodate up to 4,000 people, once its capabilities are ramped up.
Hotel quarantine, which has been responsible for leaks of the virus into the community, has been considered too risky to handle the usual number of returned travellers, given the more contagious nature of the Delta strain.
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