Greg Hunt hits back at Daniel Andrews after criticism of how COVID-19 vaccines are allocated

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Health Minister Greg Hunt said he “has at times felt” that “some people are looking to fight” after being criticized over how COVID-19 vaccines are allocated to states and territories.

Health Minister Greg Hunt hit back at Victoria Prime Minister Daniel Andrews for criticizing the way COVID-19 vaccines are allocated to states and territories.

Mr Andrews said on Tuesday he had “not signed up to vaccinate Sydney” because he accused the federal government of delivering secret shots to New South Wales.

But Mr Hunt said each state receives a per capita vaccine allowance and any additional doses provided beyond that were due to some areas with outbreaks.

“As we’ve had outbreaks, we prioritized those areas to save lives. In particular, we started by prioritizing Victoria when there was a Victorian outbreak,” he said.

“Indeed, the Victorian state system received a higher rate of doses delivered per capita than that of New South Wales.

“I think Victoria received just over three million doses in the state system (and) the NSW government received just over 3.3 million doses – 32 percent versus 26 percent. “

Mr Hunt said that at the end of the day “everyone gets exactly the same share” and that additional allocations during epidemics have been made in an effort to save lives.

“The main thing here is to save lives and protect lives,” he said.

“Every state and territory gets a per capita allocation, and where there is … an outbreak, like we did with Victoria – which we prioritized when they had an outbreak – we made sure that saving lives was at the heart of what we do. ”

The health minister said he felt “sometimes” that “some people are looking to fight” after also facing criticism from Queensland and Western Australia on Tuesday.

“Others can look for conflict, and sometimes these things can be handled a bit by scene, but it can be a bit obvious. But we’re not,” he said.

Mr Andrews said at his coronavirus press conference on Tuesday that around 340,000 doses of the vaccine that were designated for Victoria have not arrived.

“We have seen hundreds of thousands of vaccines that should have arrived (in Victoria) in Sydney,” he said.

“I did not sign up and no Victorians signed up for a national plan to vaccinate Sydney and although I have been very clear about the additional allocations given to them – known and advertised and honest and clearly transparent – it was a good thing, we didn’t blame them.

“Let’s be clear, we’re not talking about those doses. We’re talking about otherwise secret arrangements that just aren’t right.”

The Prime Minister acknowledged that Sydney faces a “very different set of circumstances” than Victoria, as the number of cases of the virus in NSW continues to rise to more than 1,000 every day.

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