Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Acting Prime Minister. As of today, less than three per cent of Australians are fully vaccinated against COVID. When will all Australians who wish to be vaccinated be fully vaccinated?

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm going to ask the health minister to add to my remarks, but more than six million vaccinations have already been done. That figure was reached this week. Only yesterday, I spoke with Saul Resnick, from DHL, whose company is transporting, via trucks, the vaccines right around regional Australia. That is significant. DHL have travelled more than 24 million kilometres to make sure that those vaccines reached regional destinations. I am very proud to say that the Royal Flying Doctor Service—and I acknowledge the regional health minister and the involvement he had with this—is also making sure that those vaccines get out to remote communities, to 80 communities and 30,000 people. I'll ask the health minister to add to my remarks.

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

Our expectation and our objective is to ensure that every Australian who seeks to be vaccinated is given that access this year. That remains our intention and, indeed, that likelihood continues to strengthen. As the Deputy Prime Minister mentioned, we have now passed six million vaccinations in Australia. Yesterday it was 152,000 vaccinations. It was the highest Tuesday. It was the second-highest day that we've received so far. That is a very positive sign, in terms of Australians stepping forward to be vaccinated. I want to thank all of those that have come forward to do that.

In particular, what we have also seen is that we are now at 62 per cent of the over-70s in Australia—or 1.8 million and a little bit more—that have been vaccinated and 45 per cent of the over-50s, just under four million, and we expect to pass that four million figure during the course of today. So six million vaccinations have been delivered. Last week we saw record weekly days, on average. Significantly, we passed five million Australians who have had their first doses two days ago. Now we have passed six million total doses for Australia. In addition to that, what's very important is that we are seeing Australians stepping up around the country. I want to thank them, to respect them, and to thank all of our health and medical professionals who are assisting in the program, as we continue to vaccinate the nation, with an expectation that in the next 24 hours we will pass 25 per cent of Australians who have stepped forward to be vaccinated.