Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews (right) says NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian (left) is in a “sprint while the rest of us are supposed to do some egg and spoon thing”.Credit:Christopher Pearce/Darrian Traynor
The federal figures show the strongest benefit to NSW was in primary care after the federal government’s vaccine taskforce,led by Lieutenant-General John Frewen,launched a “rapid on-boarding” program to counter the outbreak by giving more doses to 260 GPs.
This meant NSW received 1.2 million,or 43.1 per cent,of the total for the primary care program in the seven months to the end of August,well above its population share of 32 per cent.
The NSW government received 2.9 million Pfizer vaccines,or 34.5 per cent of all the doses that went to state and territory authorities for hospitals and vaccination hubs.
NSW received 274,452 doses for aged care and disability care centres,or 33.5 per cent of the total.
The Victorian primary care program received only 21.1 per cent of the allocation for the program across the country. The Queensland primary care program received 19.1 per cent and Western Australia received 8.1 per cent,both below their population shares.
The federal figures showed Victoria also gained from special allocations and moved ahead of NSW in June to receive more Pfizer doses overall.
Victoria at some point received 300,000 more Pfizer doses than its projected allocation because of its rising case numbers,bringing forward shipments it was meant to receive later.
“It’s like getting an advance on your pay – you get it upfront and then give it back later,” one federal source said of the decisions to help some states during outbreaks.
The approach means all states will receive a per-capita distribution of the Pfizer doses over time but that the adjustment will not be immediate because of the pressure from rising cases in NSW.
The biggest increase to NSW came on August 15 when Mr Morrison announceda shipment of 1 million doses from Poland and said 530,000 would go to NSW. This was about 210,000 more than NSW would have received on a per-capita allocation.
Mr Morrison said on August 15 this decision had been based on advice from Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly about the risks in NSW.
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Over the past week,however,Mr Morrison has said that other additional doses,such as 500,000 from Singapore and 4 million from the United Kingdom,would be allocated on a per-capita basis.
The federal figures also show an allocation of 289,692 doses of Pfizer to the Australian Defence Force and operations in Papua New Guinea.
South Australia received 565,230 doses for its state government program,63,864 for aged care and disability care and another 127,140 for primary care.
This meant the state received 756,234 doses of Pfizer over the seven months to the end of August,or 6.2 per cent of the overall program. This was slightly less than its 6.9 per cent population share.
Tasmania received 244,530 doses for its state government program,36,408 for aged care and disability care and another 36,210 for primary care. This meant it received 2.6 per cent of the total Pfizer allocation,above its 2.1 per cent population share.
The Australian Capital Territory received 218,958 doses for its state government program,12,492 for aged care and disability care and 36,270 for primary care. This meant it received 2.2 per cent of the total,above its 1.7 per cent population share.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she understood the need for NSW to receive more vaccines as it was “going through a really tough time” but sherebuked the federal government for criticising states.
“Please don’t pick a fight when another state is getting more vaccines,” she said.
Mr Hunt noted,however,that Queensland had not taken as many AstraZeneca doses as it could have.
“I would point out that with regards to Queensland,that their 78 per cent ordering of their state entitlement is the lowest of any state and territory. In particular,they have a 37 per cent order rate of AstraZeneca,” Mr Hunt said.
“To Victoria’s credit,they’ve done an outstanding job with AstraZeneca. They’ve made it a feature of their rollout,and so I applaud that and recognise and respect that.”
The federal figures for AstraZeneca show NSW received only 17.6 per cent of the 1.8 million doses sent over seven months to the end of August to state and territory governments for state-run hubs. Victoria received 45.1 per cent,reflecting a strong campaign to use this vaccine.
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