DAVID KOCH:
New South Wales is bracing for COVID cases in the triple-digits today. The state recorded 77 yesterday, with 33 of them infectious in the community. The escalation in cases also saw a 90-year-old woman become the first Aussie to die from COVID this year. Meanwhile, new ads are being rolled encouraging Aussies to get vaccinated. But one is only being played in Sydney. A warning, it's graphic.
[COVID-19 ad]
More than 9 million COVID vaccines have been administered in Australia so far. For more, I'm joined by the head of the national COVID vaccine taskforce, Lieutenant General John Frewen. Thanks for joining us. When it comes to ads, everyone's a critic. You can't win. What do you think it?
JOHN FREWEN:
Morning Kochie. It's great to be with you. Since I've started in this role, people have been calling for more information and different materials around the campaign. Arm Yourself has been the one that we've been waiting to release. Last week we got good news about additional doses of Pfizer coming through, so the time is right now for Arm Yourself. It's really about rallying people to the cause and understanding the importance that vaccination is about yourself, your friends, your families and your committees. So, I think that effectively conveys the sort of message that we want now at this stage of the campaign.
Of course, the other ad, very confronting, is very specifically about convincing people in Sydney to stay at home right now, to get tested if necessary and to get vaccinated as quickly as they can.
DAVID KOCH:
Okay. So, it's- a lot of people have been calling for these ads for a while. They haven't come around. Is it because we didn't have enough vaccines if people were convinced to go and get vaccinated? Are you saying now we do?
JOHN FREWEN:
We've had- last week we were getting around about 300,000 doses of Pfizer a week. Over the rest of July and into August we'll start to average probably more than around about a million doses of Pfizer a week, so that's a big uptick. So I think that puts us in a good position now to have Arm Yourself out there. But we will build on Arm Yourself, it's just another phase of the campaign. And through the year as we particularly get later into the year when we've got more vaccines available and we're starting to have to give people a bit more of a nudge then, we'll have different material.
DAVID KOCH:
So, the confronting one shows a younger woman on a ventilator showing what it's like to be in hospital in ICU on ventilating, aimed at the under 40s who can't get their shot at the moment. So from next week, can under 40s go and get vaccinated?
JOHN FREWEN:
Kochie, under 40s can get vaccinated now. They just need to go to their GPs-
DAVID KOCH:
[Interrupts] No, no, with Pfizer.
JOHN FREWEN:
... GPs- no, with AstraZeneca right now, they can have a discussion with their GPs and get informed consent. We'll be bringing on additional cohorts into Pfizer later in the year when we have additional Pfizer.
DAVID KOCH:
Okay. So if you're under 40, you'll have to get the AstraZeneca at least until later in the year. You won't have enough Pfizer for them?
JOHN FREWEN:
That's right.
DAVID KOCH:
Okay. Alright. Is the rollout producing more vaccinations or just bringing forward supplies that we'd already committed to?
JOHN FREWEN:
Yeah, so, in relation to the Pfizer, that's a bring forward. We're contracted for 40 million doses of Pfizer this year.
DAVID KOCH:
Right. So it's a bring forward, it's not extras?
JOHN FREWEN:
That's correct.
DAVID KOCH:
Okay. Lieutenant General, thanks for joining us. Here's Nat.
JOHN FREWEN:
Thanks Kochie.
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