Morrison sorry for slow rollout as Covid surges

Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison apologised for a sluggish Covid vaccination programme, while the country’s most populous state reported its biggest one-day spike in infections in 16 months, yesterday.

Australia was lauded for containing the pandemic in 2020, but it has struggled this year to slow the spread of the highly contagious delta variant even with more than half its 25 million population under a long lockdown.

New South Wales reported 124 new cases, versus 110 a day ago, and warned cases would likely rise further.