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

I thank the member for Chifley. I would note that, to date, 4.6 million vaccines have been delivered in New South Wales. Just in the last 24 hours, off the back of the additional supplies which the government has made available—200,000 additional doses of Pfizer, coupled with the bringing forward of over 180,000 doses—New South Wales has administered a record number of vaccines. There have been 106,000 vaccinations given in New South Wales in the last 24 hours. In particular, that includes 30,000 from the state vaccination clinics and 76,000 from our GPs and our pharmacists. I want to note the role of pharmacies. On Monday there were 7,777 doses delivered by pharmacies, yesterday there were over 9,000 and all up there have been over 56,000. These doses are increasing every day, particularly across New South Wales, particularly across Sydney, particularly across Western Sydney. We have 321 pharmacies delivering vaccines in New South Wales, and that will grow to 584 in New South Wales by the end of this week. So we're seeing a significant increase in vaccines, and that's leading to a significant increase in vaccinations. New South Wales, at this point in time, as I say, has seen 106,000 vaccinations in the last 24 hours.

What we are also doing is making sure that across the country, but in particular in New South Wales, we not only have new GPs coming on board, we not only have the pharmacies coming on board, we also have the over 380,000 additional doses which have gone to New South Wales, which have been driving the state vaccination increase and uptake. That had previously been close to a maximum of 20,000 doses a day, then 25,000 and then, yesterday, 30,000. It was a record day in primary care. Over 163,000 doses were delivered in primary care around Australia, and matched in New South Wales. So, ultimately, I want to thank every Australian for coming forward. But I say to all members of this House that this is our chance to be encouraging all of our constituents to come forward; to be encouraging people, when they're eligible, to take that opportunity. We have almost 82 per cent of our over-70s, but every person who is over 70 years of age has access to a vaccine now. That option is with them. So it's up to each of us to work with our communities, to encourage our parents and our grandparents to encourage them to come forward, to take that opportunity to save their lives and to protect their lives.

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