Jab delay big hit to economy

AUSTRALIA’S economy is likely to take a $1.4bn hit because of delays in rolling out the coronavirus vaccine, researchers say.

The nation would need to boost its vaccination rate up to 15 times to meet targets set out in the federal government’s road map, modelling by the The McKell Institute suggests.

The federal government’s January road map indicated 65 per cent of the population would be vaccinated by August. The World Health Organisation says vaccine coverage of 65 to 70 per cent is what’s needed to reach population immunity.

However, delays to the rollout have blown the date out, in turn increasing the likelihood of more lockdowns and restrictions.

“Even if Australia instantly picks up its vaccination rollout rate to that of the UK — currently the second-best performer in the world — it would delay herd immunity by 116 days from the Morrison government’s original projection,” The McKell Institute report released on Monday says.

“On this projection, Australia could expect 11.1 days of lockdown in the extra period, costing the economy some $1.368 billion.”

Scott Morrison has abandoned his January targets for the vaccine rollout following new medical advice last week.

Australia’s medical experts on Thursday recommended against using AstraZeneca to vaccinate people under 50 because of concerns about a rare blood clotting disease.

The Prime Minister on Sunday said the government had no plans to set any new targets for delivering the vaccines.

“The government has also not set, nor has any plans to set any new targets for completing first doses,” Mr Morrison said in a Facebook post.

So far, 1.16 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Australia, with more than 465,000 given by GPs.