The rollout that just isn’t rolling out … a Daley grind

Help the aged Just how badly is the Commonwealth’s vaccination rollout to aged and disability care facilities going? Bearing in mind that on the government’s revised timetable both sectors were supposed to have been completed by the end of March, yesterday the minister in charge of the vaccishambles, Greg Hunt, revealed just 12,000 doses had been delivered to people in disability care and staff — or less than half of the target population — two months late, while a new outbreak threatens lives in Victoria.

And don’t expect that situation to be resolved any time soon. Last week was the worst week for the aged/disability residential care rollout program since the government began releasing numbers. Fewer than 20,000 people in the combined sector were vaccinated last week compared with nearly 30,000 the previous week and more than 32,000 the week before that.

The rollout to those sectors is the one part directly controlled by the Morrison government. The GP rollout, presumably driven by increased interest in Victoria, surged last week to record three days of well over 60,000 doses. And the states have dramatically lifted their work rate: where once the Commonwealth’s GP and residential rollouts provided 75% to 80% of all vaccinations, by late last week that was down to about 56%.