Top medical officer shtum on jab timeline
The nation's top medical officer has declined to put a timeline on when Australians can realistically expect to be fully vaccinated against coronavirus.
On Friday, the national cabinet gave in-principle approval to a full vaccination plan of 70 per cent that would see border restrictions ease and city-wide lockdowns become unlikely, although no deadline was agreed.
When 80 per cent of the population is vaccinated it will be time to open international borders to equally protected nations.
Addressing reporters on Sunday, acting Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd was asked how many jabs would need to be delivered each week to get 70 per cent of the population vaccinated by the end of year?
"We're continuing to see the number of doses administered ramp up on a daily basis," Professor Kidd replied.
"So, I'll let you do the maths as to how quickly that will take us to get to 70 per cent."
He said Australians continue to get vaccinated in record numbers with 110,000 jabs administered on Saturday, taking the count to over 12.3 million doses.
He added that vaccinations totalled 4.5 million doses in July, compared to 3.4 million in June and 2.1 million in May.
However that hasn't stopped others speculating about what can be achieved by year's end.
The nation's vaccine co-ordinator believes with the supply coming on, there is a "fantastic chance" of getting the vast amount of Australians fully vaccinated this year.
Lieutenant General John Frewen says there are 1.5 million AstraZeneca doses available at present.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce says the government is striving hard to get as many people as possible by Christmas.
In the meantime, virus cases in Sydney continue to ramp up, with 239 reported on Sunday, along with another death, the 14th in this current outbreak.
Queensland also announced nine new cases on the first day of its three-day lockdown in the southeast of the state.
It was Queensland's highest number of daily infections in almost 12 months.
Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles said it was a very unsettling and troubling period.
"It's a reminder that we will be living in the land of the lockdown, so long as we have a vaccine rate which is at a pathetically low," he told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.
"That is Scott Morrison's failure and that is why we are living in the land of the lockdown, which is being experienced by people in Brisbane, obviously people in NSW."
