Vaccine Rollout Delay as Flooding Hits Australia’s East Coast

(Bloomberg) --

Australia’s rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine has been hampered by torrential rain and flooding that has seen residents along the New South Wales coast -- including parts of Sydney -- evacuated.

The downpour is expected to cause disruptions to freight and logistic services across the state with vaccine deliveries likely to be impacted, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said on Sky News’ Sunday Agenda show. The government was working with freight and distribution companies in charge of the deliveries to gauge how they will be affected, Birmingham said.

The government has faced criticism for poor organization and a slower-than-expected start to its vaccine rollout.

Western Sydney and the New South Wales Mid-North coast are bearing the brunt of the relentless downpour that has caused the Warragamba Dam, Sydney’s primary source of water, to overflow for the first time in five years. Residents in the city’s northwest and those in low-lying areas were ordered by emergency services to evacuate.

The Parramatta River in Sydney’s west broke its banks, and local media carried photos of a house floating down a river on the state’s Mid-North coast. A “mini tornado” ripped through Chester Hill, a western Sydney suburb, uprooting trees and causing thousands of residents to lose power.

The state is in the midst of an “extreme weather event,” New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said at a press conference in Sydney on Saturday, urging residents to stay home and be on high alert.

“The concerning aspect about the weather conditions we are experiencing is the last time we suffered major floods in New South Wales, the weather event passed within two or three days,” Berejiklian said. “Unfortunately, this will be a deep-seated extreme weather event.”

The rain will probably last till the end of next week, she said. “It’s not going to be an easy week for us,” she added.

The rain is a “very significant record-breaking event,” according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The drenching comes about a year after Australia experienced catastrophic bushfires that burned more than 6 million acres, and wiped out communities amid searing heat and a prolonged drought.

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