Sydney given jabs priority

NSW doctors and pharmacists received triple the number of vaccine doses over the past two months compared to their Victorian counterparts, in what Daniel Andrews has blasted as an “under the table” deal.

The Victorian Premier unleashed on the federal government on Tuesday after News Corp revealed the number of GPs approved to vaccinate Victorians was held back so an extra 260 clinics could be brought online in Sydney.

This expansion of the NSW primary care rollout – coupled with a surge in demand sparked by Sydney’s worsening outbreak – saw their GPs and pharmacies administer 1.9 million AstraZeneca doses in July and August, double that given in Victorian clinics.

The prioritisation of NSW has left Victoria weeks behind in the vaccine race and prompted Mr Andrews to demand a “reckoning” to make up the shortfall.

“I signed up to a national plan to vaccinate our nation, not a national plan to vaccinate Sydney,” he said.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt defended the rollout, saying vaccine doses were fast-tracked to Sydney in the same way supplies were brought forward in Victoria’s outbreak earlier this year.