Australian PM scraps Covid-19 vaccination deadline
Scott Morrison has scrapped plans to announce a new deadline to vaccinate all Australians by the end of the year against Covid-19 in an admission over the “uncertainties” surrounding the programme.
Despite promising greater transparency on the rollout by providing daily updates on the number of people vaccinated, the Prime Minister confirmed yesterday that the Government will no longer commit to any targets on when the programme will be fully completed or when most Australians will have their first jab.
The Morrison Government had indicated that the majority of Australians would have their first Covid-19 jab by the end of October and that the majority of adults would be fully vaccinated in the two-jab vaccination programme by the end of 2021.
“Each day we are now updating information on the roll out of the vaccine,” the Prime Minister said in a Facebook post outlining the latest figures. “You can see that 1.16 million doses have now been administered, with over 465,000 given by our GPS. Another 1000 GPS are expected to join the rollout this week, taking the total number to over 4000.”
But while the original programme included a target for Phase A and Phase B for vulnerable people and frontline workers, the Prime Minister said these would no longer be updated or provided. Morrison would also not commit to a timetable on when most Australians are vaccinated, a necessary step to reopen international borders and relax hotel quarantine requirements.
“The Government has also not set, nor has any plans to set any new targets for completing first doses. While we would like to see these doses completed before the end of the year, it is not possible to set such targets given the many uncertainties involved.
“We will just get on with the job of working together to produce, distribute and administer the vaccines as safely and efficiently as possible. These daily data reports will enable Australians to be kept informed of the progress.
“You will also be able to see how we are comparing to other countries, at the same stage of their rollout. The latest data shows that Australia’s vaccination programme is advancing consistent with comparable countries such as Germany, and ahead of Canada, Sweden, France, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan at the same stage of their rollouts.”
The Government’s vaccine rollout has been hit by the revised medical advice over the Astrazeneca vaccine that it is not the preferred option for under-50s.
This decision was made because younger Australians are less likely to die from Covid-19 if they contract it making the rare risk of a blood clot from the vaccine a higher risk from Covid-19 according to some experts.
On April 8, Morrison said the fallout would take some time for the Morrison Government to work through after new health advice on Thursday to advise anyone under 50 to consider the alternative Pfizer/biontech vaccine – if it’s available.
— news.com.au