The state has not used about 80,690 doses of the vaccine given to it by the federal government, having administered 144,320 jabs by Sunday.The Herald Sun understands the stockpile is because officials have been cautious about keeping doses of the vacine on hand, with deliveries for some batches arriving on varying dates.By keeping a limited stockpile, the state has been able to roll out the vaccine even on days when a planned shipment may not yet have arrived.Scott Morrison has sought to downplay the vaccine rollout issues after abandoning all targets over the weekend, saying Australia had more time because it was not at “crisis level” like the US and UK. “We hope to be able to move into the balance of the population as we get into the second half of the year,” the Prime Minister said. “What we will know then at that point is that those in the front line of our health and quarantine system, and those most at risk, being our elderly population, they have been getting the protection of the vaccine to ensure that our worst-case scenarios can be protected against. He said the virus “writes its own rules”. “Rather than set targets that can get knocked about by every to and fro of international supply chains and other disruptions that can occur, we’re just getting on with it,” Mr Morrison said. Amid a raft of issues related to reliance on overseas production of some vaccines and younger Australians advised against receiving the AstraZeneca jab, Australia’s top health official confirmed the vaccine rollout was being recalibrated.Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly would not say how many Pfizer doses Australia had so far received, nor would he say when he predicted all Australians will have received their first dose. “We… have had a big change in relation to the logistics and rollout in terms of the announcement on AstraZeneca last week,” Prof Kelly said.“We are working through those logistic challenges and will continue to do that. I’m not going to be led into giving a number.”So far, almost 1.2 million Australians have been vaccinated. States officials on Monday confirmed the rollout of the AstraZeneca jab for people under 50 would remain paused. The state government has also asked about 80,000 doses that they had planned to use at state sites over the next two weeks to be repurposed and sent to GP clinics that were in need.Acting Premier James Merlino said authorities would wait to provide the jab to Victorians to under 50s while it sought more detail what the advice meant for legal protection, or indemnity, for doctors and nurses.They also want health workers to receive compulsory training about the vaccine, and who should receive it, and time to produce information and consent documents in other languages.Mr Merlino said the decision to redirect vaccine supplies was because GPs were “calling out for more”.“We want to see this done as quickly and as efficiently as possible,” he said.“We’ve got enough AstraZeneca to deliver what we need to deliver.“We’re saying to the Commonwealth, don’t send us AstraZeneca to state sites for the next fortnight, send it to our GPs.“So GPs can administer the vaccine particularly to our older cohorts, over 70s and over 80s.”Mr Merlino said the increasing training, communication and other steps were vital for restoring the vaccination program.He said the Victorian Government still had confidence in the rollout but work was needed to reset it and get vaccinations ramping back up.
Powered by WPeMatico
