Australia Covid news live: Scott Morrison speaks as NSW records 141 new cases and two deaths, including woman in her 30s
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Version 9 of 19. Follow all the latest updates, live Morrison is now addressing concerns around the supply of Pfizer, especially to NSW. (Remember: the NSW government asked the federal and other state government to divert their Pfizer doses to it to deal with the state’s growing Covid-19 outbreak.) Morrison says the federal government provided NSW with 50,000 extra doses of Pfizer on Friday. Morrison has welcomed the updated advice from Atagi which is now recommending anyone over the age of 18 in greater Sydney get any available vaccine, including AstraZeneca. More details on Australia’s vaccine rollout: 62% of people over 50 have had one dose of the vaccine, and 22% have had both doses. 77% of people over 70 have had their first dose, and 37% have had both. Morrison adds that in the past six days, Australia has administered 1m doses: Scott Morrison is updating Australia’s vaccine levels. He says that there was a record 100,000 vaccine doses delivered on Saturday, which brings the total to 11.14m doses administered (that’s single doses, not the total number of people who are fully vaccinated because remember you need two doses to be vaccinated). Morrison says 38% of the population has had at least one dose; 16% have had two doses and are fully vaccinated. Correction: my colleague Nick Evershed has pointed out that it’s 38% of people over the age of 16 who have had a Covid-19 shot. Prime minister Scott Morrison is reiterating today’s announcement that the federal government has secured 85m extra doses of Pfizer to provide all Australians with booster vaccines over the next two years. Morrison says booster shots are important to ensure “we can live with Covid-19 going forward”. Hello, it’s Justine Landis-Hanley here taking the blog back after a quick break. Thanks so much to my colleague and overall legend Matilda Boseley for keeping us all up to date on the news over lunch! We are just waiting for prime minister Scott Morrison to address reporters at a press conference slated for 1.15pm. We are just standing by now for prime minister Scott Morrison to step up for a press conference, no doubt to discuss the newly signed deal for additional 85m doses of the Pfizer vaccine to be delivered in 2022-23. Morrison said earlier the deal will provide every Australian with access to a booster vaccine, if required. Here is Jonathan Howcroft’s coverage on the Guardian Olympic live blog of that record-breaking swim: You can read more live coverage here: WORLD RECORD! Australia has just broken the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay. I’ll bring you more details in a second. |