LEIGH SALES:
Lieutenant General John Frewen is the COVID-19 task force commander. Lieutenant General, all the time cases are popping up around the country. In the race between cases spreading through the population and vaccination spreading through the population, vaccination is winning, but is it moving fast enough that when lockdowns and case numbers inevitably move into much higher figures, that death and serious illness will remain low?
JOHN FREWEN:
Leigh, so as you've mentioned, I'm glad you've seen that the momentum in the vaccine rollout is really picking up speed, but of course, this Delta variant is- it's really- it spreads rapidly. It's really concerning. So we do have to have two arms at play. We've got to have the lockdowns, the testing, the tracing, the isolation. And then we also need to be vaccinating as quickly as we can. And I'm committed to a national vaccine rollout because I think for the very reason you've described about outbreaks moving around, that we do need to make sure that the vaccine rollout is happening as consistently as we can. Ideally in some areas we'll manage to get to those high rates of vaccination before further outbreaks. But in situations like we've got in Sydney right now, which you know are very, very challenging, we've got to do the two concurrently. So we're working to get those vaccines into the highest priority areas as fast as we can. But all of those other measures we've got to persist with until we get the spread under control.
LEIGH SALES:
One of the more concerning developments in New South Wales has been the spread into regional areas. How much vaccine coverage is there in regional New South Wales, but in particular in remote Indigenous communities?
JOHN FREWEN:
Well, as I've said, in the national rollout plan, we've been distributing the vaccines across the country in its entirety. We do it in two ways. We do it through the Commonwealth GPs, Commonwealth vaccine clinics and the ACCHOs, the Indigenous health services. And then we also provide vaccines to the states and territories, which they distribute as well. But there is coverage across the country. We've been very conscious of making sure that in some areas where there aren't necessarily access to GPs that we've bought pharmacies on earlier; where there aren't access to either of those, that we've got visits from services like the Royal Flying Doctor Service, but it's been a feature of the campaign from the start. We watch it carefully and we'll make sure the further we go into this that we quickly identify any areas that may be falling behind.
LEIGH SALES:
What about Walgett in New South Wales north west, where we know that they have now reported a case and there's a very significant Indigenous community?
JOHN FREWEN:
Absolutely. So we were working with the New South Wales authorities on this last night. And between us, we've come up with a- I think, a very appropriate response and a very rapid response. Both New South Wales and ourselves are redirecting vaccines to the medical facilities there. We've also started to move additional testing kits. We've started to move additional PPE and we've put the Royal Flying Doctor Service on standby to also provide additional vaccination support.
LEIGH SALES:
And where is that equipment and those vaccines, where are they being moved from?
JOHN FREWEN:
Yes, look, there is already- there's six GPs, there's one Commonwealth vaccine clinic run by the ACCHOs there already. So vaccines are already there, testing equipment is already there and PPE is already there. We're just moving them from either stocks that are available or other facilities where we've got these things. They're coming from a multitude of places across New South Wales, but this is all just reprioritisation within New South Wales, either from the Commonwealth stocks or the New South Wales stocks.
LEIGH SALES:
I guess what I'm getting to is, are you leaving other areas more uncovered to deal with Walgett?
JOHN FREWEN:
No, we're always said making sure that the vaccine rollout continues consistently. You would appreciate that there is a- there's an allocation and there's an ordering process and then there's getting vaccines into arms. We make sure that where sometimes orders aren't going to arms as quickly as possible that we can identify that and just move those as an opportunity prior to the next orders coming in.
LEIGH SALES:
You've said this week that you thought Australia could have 70 per cent coverage by the end of the year. Is it possible that could come sooner?
JOHN FREWEN:
Now this is a story of additional vaccines are coming in. And you know, I think through September and October, we're expecting a real ramp up in the available vaccines. We're also opening up additional distribution points all the time. Currently, we've got the pharmacists coming on. We've got 676 pharmacists operating today. We hope to have about 1400 by the end of this week and we hope to be up into well over 2000 early next week. So it's more vaccines, it's more distribution points. And in that, we're just going to keep seeing these numbers accelerate. But ultimate though, it's all about ...
LEIGH SALES:
[Talks over] Sorry to interrupt, though, but you will hit a point where it won't keep accelerating because you'll hit a sort of hard point where most people who want to get done will have been done?
JOHN FREWEN:
Yeah, look, today we've also released sentiment data. Ultimately, this is about people in Australia coming forward to get vaccinated. Right now, I'm really appreciative of the approach Australians are taking. They're coming forward in droves - those numbers indicate it. The sentiment surveys say that 79 per cent of Australians are intending to get vaccinated. That is a fantastic number. There's about another 14 per cent making up their mind. And at the moment, there's only seven per cent who are saying they won't get vaccinated. Now, in those numbers, we can get to 70 per cent, we can get to 80 per cent. We'll just keep encouraging people to do the right thing. And Australians seem to know it's the right thing to do for themselves and for our nation. And I really, really am enthusiastic that we can get those sort of numbers done as long as people keep turning up, Leigh.
LEIGH SALES:
Lieutenant General, thank you for your time.
JOHN FREWEN:
Thanks, Leigh.