Victoria also experienced a fall in deliveries to GPs and primary care clinics in July but this came after an unusual surge in shipments to 981,400 doses the previous month,when the state took almost twice as much AstraZeneca as NSW.
The figures for the AstraZeneca deliveries come after separate figures on Pfizer shipments showed NSW gained more than itsshare of the population,including a major boost to GPs in August as the state’s outbreak grew worse.
Mr Andrews is asking for 340,000 more Pfizer doses for Victoria tomake up the gap with NSW.
But the AstraZeneca figures reflect demand rather than supply constraints because the federal government told states there was “uncapped ordering” for the vaccine thanks to strong supply from local manufacturer CSL.
Ms Berejiklianstepped up her advocacy for AstraZeneca in the final weeks of July by telling people under 40 to “please,please come forward” and check with their GPs and get the vaccine.
This helped increase AstraZeneca shipments to NSW primary care clinics to 2.4 million during July and August,while the same clinics in Victoria only took 637,300 in the same period.
The federal figures show the deliveries from the federal government’s vaccine taskforce to each state and territory every month across three channels:GPs and primary care;aged and disability care;and state government centres such as vaccine hubs.
NSW received 39.2 per cent of the primary care allocation,above its population share of 31.8 per cent. Victoria received 23.1 per cent,below its population share of 25.9 per cent. Queensland received 19.8 per cent,slightly below its population share of 20.2 per cent,while Western Australia received 8 per cent,below its population share of 10.4 per cent.
The shipments to the Australian Capital Territory were the same as the 1.7 per cent population share in that jurisdiction,while deliveries were slight below population numbers for South Australia,Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
AstraZeneca shipments across all three programs rose to 15.9 million over the seven months to the end of August,a different figure to vaccinations because not all doses were used in the month shipped. This included 2.5 million for the Department of Defence,Department of Foreign Affairs and Papua New Guinea.
When all three programs were combined,NSW received 36.2 per cent,above its population share,while Victoria received 26.1 per cent,slightly above its population share.
Queensland received 19 per cent,Western Australia 8.3 per cent,South Australia 6.1 per cent,Tasmania 2 per cent,the ACT 1.65 per cent and the Northern Territory 0.58 per cent.
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Health Minister Greg Hunt drew attention to the differences between the states on Tuesday by noting the lower orders from Queensland.
“Their 78 per cent ordering of their state entitlement is the lowest of any state and territory,” Mr Hunt said,referring to Queensland’s orders for both vaccines.
“In particular,they have a 37 per cent order rate of AstraZeneca.
“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.”
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