House debates
Thursday, 24 June 2021
Questions without Notice
COVID-19: Vaccination
2:18 pm
Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is to the Prime Minister. The advice I have received is that the most effective way to stop the spread of the virus is to vaccinate, first, the most vulnerable and, second, the most active spreaders, being the 20- to 39-year-olds in our community. Yet this age group does not even have access to the vaccine in New South Wales. Can you confirm that New South Wales has sufficient Pfizer capacity to immediately vaccinate this cohort?
2:19 pm
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
[by video link] I'll ask the Minister for Health and Aged Care to add to my answer. The assertion made by the member regarding the cohort she's referred to as being a priority vaccination cohort is not the advice of the SITAG advisory panel, led by Professor Murphy. It is not the advice of the Chief Medical Officer. The priority cohort groups of people were set out in the national vaccination strategy, which went through the national cabinet and went through our own cabinet last year. Those priorities were set by the medical professionals advising the Commonwealth—and not just those medical advisers but also the chief health officers of all the states and territories. We have been following that medical advice, and that is what has driven that strategy.
And so it is to date that, of the more vulnerable populations—those in residential aged care—100 per cent of residential aged-care facilities have had that first dose offered, and 99 per cent have had the second dose offered, and that will soon be completed with both doses. The population aged over 70, also the most vulnerable population, has a vaccination of more than two-thirds.
Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The Prime Minister will just pause for a second. The member for Warringah on a point of order.
Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
On relevance, Mr Speaker: the question did go to supply of Pfizer.
Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Yes, but it also had a preamble. If it had been just that question, I think, as I've pointed out many times, the member would have a stronger case. But I'll keep listening to the Prime Minister to ensure he's being relevant. He had indicated he was going to ask the minister for health to add to his answer as well. I call the Prime Minister.
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I will ask the minister for health to join this answer in just a second. But the point that was made by the member is that we should be vaccinating 20- to 40-year-olds, as a priority cohort, with the Pfizer vaccine. That is not the advice of the Chief Medical Officer or the government's medical advisers, and so I contest what she is putting forward to this chamber. I will ask the minister for health to update the House on the Pfizer supplies.
2:21 pm
Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
To add to the Prime Minister's answer, I can indicate that this week New South Wales is expected to receive another 134,000 Pfizer vaccinations over the course of the coming days. In addition to that, over the period from July to August, during the course of the next month, that will grow, on average, to over 200,000 Pfizer doses per week. That will be over 104,000 for the state government, and it will average, over the course of that period, over 102,000 for general practices. That will then grow, during the September period, to over 290,000 Pfizer and over 30,000 Moderna, and then, in the final quarter of the year, to 540,000 Pfizer a week and 149,000 Moderna.
As the Prime Minister said, the advice received from ATAGI, from SITAG, from the Chief Medical Officer and from the previous Chief Medical Officer, and from around the world, has always been that we start with the oldest and we work our way through, because vaccination will give the greatest protection to those people. (Time expired)