Health authorities in NSW have called for Australia's COVID-19 vaccine strategy to focus on south-west Sydney, where the virus outbreak is now a "national emergency".
Key points:
- NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant wants all vaccines redirected to south-western Sydney
- The Premier will ask other states to give up their allocations of Pfizer today
- Dr Chant has called for the Pfizer vaccine to be administered to younger working people
When asked if she would be pushing for other states to give up their allocations of the Pfizer vaccine, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said: "I think those are conversations we need to have at National Cabinet."
NSW recorded 136 new COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8:00pm yesterday — the highest number of daily new infections in the state since this Delta outbreak began last month.
NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said she was "recommending strongly" the strategy be refocused and that "all vaccine initiatives" be redirected to south-western Sydney, which has become the epicentre of the outbreak.
Ms Berejiklian said it was better to get at least one jab in people and said she would ask other states to give up their allocations of the Pfizer vaccine today.
"There is no doubt, we believe very strongly that we need to refocus the national strategy on vaccine rollout, given the situation New South Wales is in, we need to administer at least the first dose of any vaccine into arms as much as possible," she said.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said during his Friday press conference that there wasn't enough Pfizer to go around.
"They have been allocated fairly … I am not opposed to NSW receiving more and in fact they have received more in the most recent bring forward because of the difficult circumstances they face."
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall echoed the sentiment, saying it was unlikely his state would send over Pfizer jabs.
"From South Australia's perspective I'm not wanting to send any of our vaccination doses anywhere else, we're in the middle of a major emergency declaration and a lockdown in South Australia," he said.
During a COVID Senate Select Committee, the head of the task force Lieutenant General John Frewen said the call to allocate more Pfizer shots to NSW "had been raised" with him.
"I'm in close consultation with the NSW authorities. We're looking at a whole range of options about how we can support them in relation to the vaccine rollout specifically," he said.
"But vaccines are only one part of a response to the outbreak like this.
"Right now we are working with NSW on a number of priority areas."
Dr Chant said the Pfizer vaccine should be administered to the "younger working population in order to prevent the spread" in the local government areas of Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool.
"Every day people from those LGA's have to go out to work, to keep our city going," she said.
"They are doing critical food production, critical work, to keep society functioning, and we are seeing the virus introduced into various workplaces.
"We are also seeing a significant household transmission, and it has been very challenging to interrupt those transmission chains."
People under the age of 40 are ineligible for the Pfizer jab in NSW, unless they are in an exemption category.
They have been told to speak to their GP if they’re interested in receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.
"We have been doing the heavy lifting for 18 months and keeping the virus at bay, we have tried to make sure that we keep the economy going," Ms Berejiklian said.
Dr Chant said she, her husband and his parents had all been vaccinated with the AstraZeneca jab and she would not recommend it if she had any safety concerns.
The jab has been linked to blood clots in very rare cases.
"So I just want to say that the chief health officer would not recommend AstraZeneca to someone that they care about if they had concerns that the risks of AstraZeneca are infinitesimally small compared to the benefits," she said.
"So can I just be very clear that we need to correct the mythology about AstraZeneca.
"And in the context of the Delta threat, I just cannot understand why people would not be taking the opportunity to go out and get AstraZeneca in droves."
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2021-07-23 01:41:07Z
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