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

I particularly want to acknowledge the member for Reid and her work in supporting the mental health of children, young adolescents and people of all ages, but particularly at the paediatric level.

We know that the pandemic continues to rage around the world—almost 690,000 cases. Sometimes that fact is lost on some—that there is a global pandemic, the likes of which we haven't seen in 100 years. There were almost 10,000 lives lost in the last 24 hours. We are blessed that no lives were lost in Australia to COVID in that time, but we will see more lives lost; we know that.

Having said that, we have also seen 289,000 vaccinations in the last 24 hours. We have seen over 1.8 million vaccinations in the last week. In August, with 23 days or just over three weeks gone, we have seen over five million vaccinations delivered—the population of Melbourne or Sydney—in just over three weeks. That is Australians stepping forward to be vaccinated. That is Australians doing something to protect each of themselves under the national plan, to bring us closer to those critical thresholds which were reaffirmed overnight by the Doherty institute both by the press release of Professor McVernon and the words the Treasurer quoted of Sharon Lewin, who heads the Doherty institute.

We have also seen that we are now at a point where 11 million Australians have had their first dose. Eleven million Australians have stepped forward to be vaccinated. Significantly, a very important milestone is that we have had 2½ million of our older Australians step forward. For our over-50s, 75 per cent have had vaccinations. For our over-60s, over 80 per cent have had vaccinations. For our over-70s, significantly, 85 per cent have had vaccinations. These are the things that are saving lives and protecting lives.

We see that, in a world with catastrophic human tragedy, we are not immune, but we have been largely protected against these global ravages. Right now there are people who are doing it hard. Right now we are facing the challenges that other parts of the world are facing. But right now we are vaccinating on a grand scale, in addition to what we've done with borders, testing, tracing and distancing and those rings of containment—which, as the Doherty institute has set out under the national plan, will progressively replace the need for those earlier containment rings.

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