Data obtained by the Herald Sun showed the Department of Health had taken shipment of just 1.89 million low dead space syringes, with more on order.The federal government has been scrambling to increase the speed and efficiency of the rollout, after missing key early targets due to issues with supply, logistics and Pfizer becoming the main option for under 50s due to rare blood clots from the AstraZeneca jab. National cabinet will meet again on Thursday, with leaders expected to formalise a plan to fast-track vaccinations for over-50s after agreeing to the changes “in principle” earlier this week.The leaders were also expected to discuss hotel quarantine arrangements amid fears posed by the worsening situation in India and the resulting spike in positive cases of returned travellers at Howard Springs in the NT.Health Minister Greg Hunt said medical groups were supportive of the changes to the rollout, including the opening of mass jab sites. “All of these things are coming together and so, we’ll get everybody done and we’ll make sure that we continue to keep Australia safe,” Mr Hunt said. “Being able to bring forward, potentially subject to national cabinet, over-50s is I think an important step in confidence.”The AstraZeneca jab the government had banked on using for most people has largely been paused for use in younger Australians after rare cases of dangerous blood clotting were observed.The rollout again came under more fire when Department of Health officials this week revealed just over 6 per cent of Australians living with a disability in care facilities had been vaccinated, despite being in the 1a priority group.Earlier this month, national cabinet agreed to share more data around vaccinations with the public, revealing in the process there was an expected 10 per cent of doses that were expected to be lost. One of the ways to reduce loss was with low dead space syringes, but the government still does not have enough to cover how many doses of Pfizer it has bought.The special needles the country has began being distributed to Pfizer vaccination sites on March 9.So far, 1.7 million vaccines have been administered.
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