Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Chisholm, not just for the question but in particular for her support for mental health and for Chinese Australians in the early phase of the pandemic, when there were many challenges that that community in particular faced. The global challenges remain. We are fortunate in Australia today. Only one new case has been reported, announced by New South Wales yesterday, but there are no additional cases in either New South Wales or Queensland following on from the single case in each state which was announced over the weekend. Those measures which they are taking, with our support, are helping to ensure that containment continues. So far, across Australia, this year, there have been zero lives lost. Today there are zero people in ICU or on ventilation around Australia for COVID-19, and there have been 44 days without any cases this year. At the same time, the global pandemic continues. We've seen over 37 million cases this year alone and over 850,000 lives lost. Whilst the numbers have dropped significantly since mid-January, we've seen an uptick in the last week, sadly, so we need to be ever vigilant.

That's why our plan in particular of containment, testing and tracing, and distancing, on top of our border restrictions, has been fundamental. But we also have to continue with the vaccination program. In particular, we've so far ensured that potentially life-saving vaccinations have been provided to 437 aged-care facilities. Forty thousand aged-care residents have been given potentially life-saving vaccinations. In total 164,000 Australians, and those numbers are growing every day. But, fundamentally, without the source and supply of approximately a million vaccines a week from CSL—a decision we made in August of last year—Australia would be in a difficult position. We know that global competition is intense, on a scale we've never before seen with regard to vaccines. Despite that, we've been able to bring numbers into Australia and begin that program, to see that ramp up, to see that growth, to see those lives being protected. But as we go forwards, as we bring on board a sovereign vaccine manufacturing capability, the like of which is available to few other countries, we give ourselves the capacity to vaccinate the nation, to provide that certainty and that pathway out. That is about saving lives and saving livelihoods.

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