’Speed up jab rollout’

GLADYS Berejiklian wants authorities to “crank up” the vaccine rollout amid concerns the current program is too “rigid”.

The NSW Premier on Monday said leaders could “do better” in term of vaccinating the nation and questioned why it was taking so long to get the vaccine to those who need it.

“(We) can do better. I think we do have the opportunity to get the vaccine out to those who (need) it, and I’m looking forward to this conversation (with the Morrison government),” she said.

“We should be far less rigid on how we (approach) the vaccination rollout, given we know there is no issue with anyone over 50 having AstraZeneca.

“If there is quite a considerable supply in Australia at the moment, we really need to crank it up.”

The NSW government has already set up a major vaccination hub at Homebush, in addition to the 100 vaccination clinics across the state.

Ms Berejiklian said health officials were prepared for anything.

“We have the capacity to switch that (which vaccines are being administered) around depending on the supply we have,” she said.

“I don’t know how long I’ve been saying it (but) NSW is ready to step up.”

According to the premier, two-thirds of the 300,000 NSW residents her government was asked to vaccinate should have received their jab by now. She said the state was ready to step it up.

“We have always said we want to step up beyond that point to make sure we get the rollout done as quickly as we can, because having the vaccination rollout will change our lives,” she said.

Ms Berejiklian (pictured) reiterated comments made last week about having concerns Australia would fall behind the rest of the world in terms of the jab rollout and said many aspects of the program were out of the state governments’ control.

“We cannot control the supply, we cannot control the type of doses we get, or the number of doses we get every week, but we can put forward our views, and also put forward our ongoing offer,” she said.

Meanwhile, an urgent investigation is under way into how COVID-19 was transmitted between two families in hotel quarantine.

NSW Health said they were staying in adjoining rooms at the Adina Apartment Hotel, Town Hall.

“The investigation has not identified any further cases of transmission to date,” the department said in a statement on Monday.

“The two families were transferred to the Special Health Accommodation and will remain there until they are no longer infectious.”