PM must take ownership of ‘woeful’ vaccine rollout

Prime Minister Scott Morrison cannot continue "hiding under the doona" when it comes to Australia's slow vaccine rollout program, according to Labor frontbencher Stephen Jones. Australia's vaccine rollout has been marred by problems with the global supply chain coupled with vaccine hesitancy. The government had been hoping to have 4 million people inoculated by March and have all of Australia vaccinated by October, a target the Coalition now concedes it will not meet. According to official data, approximately two per cent of Australians are fully vaccinated, as opposed to 41 per cent of Americans. Without a fully vaccinated population, states are vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreaks, such as what is occurring right now in Victoria. Shadow Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones told Sky News the prime minister needs to take ownership of the country's COVID strategy. "This is a national problem, we need national support and national leadership here," he said. "The job is not finished, we still have a woeful rollout of the vaccine, we still have confusion, we have a hotel quarantine service that isn't working, it is no longer fit for purpose, we've got vaccine hesitancy growing by the day. "Scott Morrison can't be hiding under the doona when Australians need him out and on the job doing the Commonwealth's part in this terrible break out in Victoria."

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