Greg Hunt claims Australia’s handling of Covid-19 has been ‘extraordinary’ despite NSW, Vic and SA lockdowns
Greg Hunt #GregHunt
Health Minister Greg Hunt has told Australians they “shouldn’t lose sight” of the government’s “extraordinary level” of achievement in managing the Covid-19 pandemic, despite lockdowns in three capital cities.
Mr Hunt’s comments came just hours after a hard lockdown was announced for South Australia following an outbreak of five cases of the Delta strain.
Meanwhile, NSW and Victoria continue to struggle to get their own outbreaks under control with NSW’s active cases now exceeds 1000.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has blamed Delta running rampant in Sydney on the federal government’s slow vaccine rollout.
Mr Hunt said just over 37 per cent of the population has received a first dose of the vaccine. Australia maintains the lowest vaccination rate in the OECD, with just 11 per cent of the population fully vaccinated according to Our World in Data.
“The scope and scale between the rest of the world and Australia are immeasurably different and we shouldn’t lose sight of what has been achieved on an extraordinary level in Australia,” Mr Hunt told reporters on Tuesday.
Mr Hunt highlighted that 30,000 lives had been “saved” in Australia compared with the OECD average.
But while New Zealand, the UK and the US look to reopen their economies and begin a return path to normalcy, Australia is struggling to get the Delta variant under control.
Discontent over Australia’s slow pace of vaccination has been no secret.
Earlier this month, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull labelled Scott Morrison’s vaccine rollout an “incredible failure”.
“It’s the biggest failure in public administration that I can recall,” he told Channel 7.
The government’s approval rating has also fallen, with Labor ahead of the Coalition 53-47 in the latest Newspoll.
But Mr Hunt stood by the government’s approach to managing the pandemic.
“Why is it that our results in Australia are so different to everywhere else where there are significant vaccination levels? It is because we have all of the measures we have put in place: borders, testing, tracing, distancing,” he said.
“While we have deep challenges, these challenges are lessened than seen in so many other countries.”
When asked whether the government would change its approach to the virus, Mr Hunt said Australia would not deviate significantly from its suppression strategy.
“We will continue to use the different rings of containment,” he said.
Mr Hunt said that as vaccinations increased, there would be an increasing focus on hospitalisation and preventing loss of life.