Emergency vaccine meeting as Victoria records one new local COVID-19 case
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Victoria has recorded one new local coronavirus case in the past day, as the nation’s leaders meet to discuss the troubled vaccination rollout.
Eight new cases were recorded in hotel quarantine.
The vaccination centre at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton.Credit:Getty
More than 16,000 test results were processed in the past 24 hours and more than 10,900 people received their vaccine doses.
Victoria recorded only one new local coronavirus case at the weekend – and no new local cases were recorded on Sunday.
The figures come as leaders meet to discuss the vaccine rollout at an emergency national cabinet meeting after last week’s decision to limit the AstraZeneca shot to over-60s.
Vaccination experts are concerned the reputation of the AstraZeneca jab has been tarnished beyond repair, leaving Australians dangerously exposed, although demand seemed to hold up initially after almost 65,000 doses were administered nationwide on Saturday.
Victoria’s Health Minister Martin Foley said his government would raise the current dearth of vaccine supply at Monday’s meeting and push for the Commonwealth to treat the rollout as a race.
Acting Premier James Merlino again took a swipe at the Commonwealth’s delayed rollout of the vaccination program, which he described as an absolute shambles, and criticised the federal government for not securing more doses to meet the level of demand.
Victoria was receiving about 71,000 Pfizer doses of vaccine each week, which has been temporarily increased to 105,000 due to the latest coronavirus outbreak. That will fall to about 83,000 doses from July 5.
He announced a $5 million investment in the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences to begin clinical trials of a locally produced mRNA vaccine by November and have results by mid-2022.
The federal government said it would start using GPs to administer the Pfizer shot, as well as all Commonwealth vaccination centres, but limited supplies threaten to slow immunisation rates.
More to come
- with Sumeyya Ilanbey, Cara Waters and Anna Patty
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