Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. This morning the aged-care minister again said he was 'comfortable' with the pace of the vaccine rollout in aged care. Is the Prime Minister comfortable with his vaccine rollout in aged care?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We want to keep rolling out the vaccination program as quickly and as safely and as efficiently as possible. That's why it is a good thing, particularly for those aged over 70, that 53.65 of the population aged over 70 have received their first dose. That compares with New Zealand's 13.56 per cent.

A key part of our vaccination strategy, which I referred to in my earlier answer, has been to focus on those particular populations that are most vulnerable, and they are those who are in residential aged-care facilities. The coverage of those residential aged-care facilities—the coverage of all those facilities with the first dose—has been significant, particularly as we go into winter months, and we must now move quickly to ensure the balance of those doses, the second dose, are provided to those in residential aged-care facilities.

But, as we look around the world and we look particularly at countries like ours that have been successful in suppressing the virus and where the context for rolling out the vaccine is a similar situation, be it in South Korea or Japan and countries such as that, where the virus has been suppressed—New Zealand and Australia have equally suppressed it—we can point to a vaccination rate, particularly for over-70s, which is many times that of like countries.

There is much more to do, and we'll remain very focused on protecting the most vulnerable in our community as part of a national vaccination strategy, which in the past month has seen us go from 320,792 vaccinations a week to 672,000 vaccinations a week. In one month, there's been a doubling of the total number of vaccinations conducted every week. This is where our vaccination program is heading, and that's to the great support and advantage of Australia.