Scott Morrison has asked the national cabinet to meet twice a week “for the foreseeable future” in an effort to get the Covid-19 vaccination program back on track.
Last Thursday, Australia’s vaccine rollout was thrown into disarray after an advisory was slapped on the AstraZeneca vaccine warning people under 50 it may cause extremely rare but potentially deadly blood clots.
On Tuesday, health authorities concluded a second case of a rare blood clot syndrome in Australia was “likely” linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Morrison late on Sunday admitted that all Australians may not be vaccinated by the year’s end as a consequence of a recalibration of the program. The prime minister said in a statement uploaded to Facebook there would be no new timetable to replace the previous October target.
In a new statement issued on Tuesday night, Morrison said he had requested that national cabinet and health ministers “move back to an operational footing – to work together, closely, to tackle, head on, the challenges we are all facing with making our vaccination program as good as it can be”.
“There are issues we are trying to deal with as a federal government, and I have been upfront about those,” the prime minister said. “But amongst the states and territories, they are also tackling their own unique issues and working together we are all going to be in a better position to find the best solutions.”
Morrison said the national cabinet would gather next Monday and then meet twice a week “for the foreseeable future until we solve the problems and get the program back on track”.
The latest Guardian Essential poll indicated Australians are frustrated with the slow pace of the rollout. The new poll showed voter approval of the Morrison government’s handling of the pandemic dropped eight points in a month.
More than half of voters in the Guardian Essential poll sample think the Coalition needs to step up and take more responsibility for ensuring Australians are vaccinated against Covid-19 as quickly as possible.
Voters were asked to identify which tier of government or what factors were most responsible for problems with the vaccination rollout from a list including Canberra, the state governments, international supply chain problems, and unavoidable production delays.
Canberra topped that list, with 42% of the sample identifying the Morrison government. Problems with supply chains and production were next (24% and 18%). Only 7% of the sample thought the states were responsible.
With the government battling the impact of a string of abuse and harassment scandals that have rocked the Australian parliament, as well as problems with the vaccine rollout as the second winter of the pandemic looms, the poll indicated Morrison’s approval rating has hit its lowest level in 12 months.
The prime minister said in the new statement the government was…
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