Australia abandons vaccine rollout target over AstraZeneca concerns

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he won't set a new target date for all Australians to receive their first Covid-19 vaccine dose, as health concerns about the AstraZeneca shot and European export restrictions delay the rollout.

While the government wants to see first doses administered “before the end of the year, it is not possible to set such targets given the many uncertainties involved,” Morrison said in a Facebook post on Sunday. Still, he said Australia's rollout was ahead of some nations including Japan, France and Canada.

About 1.2 million people in the nation of 25.8 million have received a first dose. The main opposition Labour party says that falls some 3 million short of the promised timeline, and has criticized the government for not securing more deals with pharmaceutical producers. The government had pledged that all Australians would receive a first dose by October.


“This is a race, both in health terms and in economic terms,” Shadow Health Minister Mark Butler said. “This needs to happen quicker, it needs to happen more effectively, because the strength of our economic recovery is inextricably linked to the speed and effectiveness of this vaccine rollout.”