The opposition call comes after Scott Morrison reignited debate over home quarantine, revealing he had asked medical experts to develop a plan for vaccinated Aussies to travel overseas. The Prime Minister last week axed the nation’s vaccination targets after the AstraZeneca vaccine was linked to rare blood clotting. The vaccine is no longer recommended for people aged under 50. But Mr Marles said Australians and businesses needed meaningful targets. “We do need to have some realistic targets going forward about when do they imagine the vaccination is going to occur,” Mr Marles told Sky News. “Some milestones which then relate to when we can expect some normality.“Not the kind of heroic comments that we have heard from the Prime Mnister.”RELATED:Mass vaccination centres for over 50s under considerationMr Marles pointed to the government’s initial claims that four million Australians would be vaccinated by March – which was then pushed back to April – before a goal to give the population their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by October was also dumped. Authorities have blamed the slow vaccine rollout on international supply chain woes as domestic manufacturing of AstraZeneca doses began in March. Health Minister Greg Hunt has refused to guarantee Australia‘s borders will open even if the whole country has been vaccinated against COVID-19, prompting confusion about Mr Morrison’s home quarantine plans. New figures released on Friday show 1.4 million vaccines doses have been administered so far. But Mr Marles urged the government to explain what role vaccines played in the road map to normality. Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines reduced the serious health consequences if people contracted COVID-19.“The first reason for having a vaccine is for the individual health protection,” Senator Birmingham said. “What is less clear are questions around the extent to which the vaccines reduce the rates of transmission.“But it is that sort of modelling that really will determine, in the future, the speed with which you can reopen different parts of society and particularly reopen international borders.”Senator Birmingham said no one could precisely give answers right now because the work was ongoing. “That will be what informs our decisions, based on our health advice,” he said.
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