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States call for clarity on vaccine rollout

State and territory leaders will ask Prime Minister Scott Morrison for more detail and clarity on Australia’s vaccine rollout when national cabinet meets tomorrow.

Mar 04, 2021, updated Mar 04, 2021
Photo: University of Oxford via AP

Photo: University of Oxford via AP

The meeting comes towards the end of the second week of the nation’s coronavirus vaccine rollout, which is going slower than promised in most areas across the country.

The federal government says it will ramp up in coming weeks, including using defence personnel to help with the rollout of coronavirus vaccines across Australia from next week.

But NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is concerned that her government has been left in the dark on key aspects of the rollout, including which aged care homes in her state have had vaccinations.

She hasn’t been told how many residents have been vaccinated.

“It would help us enormously if we knew which aged care facilities had received the vaccine,” Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.

Two elderly residents at a Brisbane aged care home were last week given about four times the intended dose, by a doctor who had not completed mandatory vaccine training.

The elderly pair have not shown signs of an adverse reaction.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was furious, calling on the federal government to provide more details on the aged care vaccine rollout.

The Victorian government has extended its emergency powers for another nine months, insisting it will be the last time.

The powers provide the legal framework for public health measures during the pandemic, such as hotel quarantine, home isolation, mask-wearing and the state’s travel permit system.

Meanwhile, two people tested positive for the Russian strain of COVID-19 in Brisbane quarantine hotels earlier this week, with another 75 guests now being tested for the virus.

Australia recorded no new locally-acquired cases of the coronavirus yesterday.

There were eight new cases in returned travellers in hotel quarantine: six in NSW, one in South Australia and one in Western Australia.

-AAP

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