NSW seeks vaccine priority amid the flaring COVID-19 outbreak in the state
They have urged the federal government to divert vaccine doses to Sydney, calling for a "refocus of the national vaccination strategy" considering that "some places around Australia have very few cases or zero cases".
The plead by NSW has raised some dissent from other states though, with Victorian premier, Dan Andrews, saying that:
"We need to be careful when having a discussion about who we prioritise. The fact of the matter is, we don't have enough vaccines for everyone and the virus will go to the unvaccinated. This is how it works."
Meanwhile, South Australia premier, Steven Marshall, was more upfront by saying:
"I'm not wanting to send any of our vaccination doses anywhere else."
For some context, Australia is short of vaccine supply at the moment with Pfizer being the main choice but the government has only ordered 10 million doses of that. The country's population is roughly 26 million.
AstraZenca was the other main vaccine choice but it has been subsequently deemed as "unsafe" for those below 60 years, hence only about 15% of the Australian adult population has been fully vaccinated for the time being.
A summary of the news from Australia for today:
