Australia's chief medical officer is seeking the release of more COVID-19 vaccine doses as Victoria enters day two of its fourth debilitating statewide lockdown.
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Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said there was cause for "great hope" in the way the state had reacted to the latest outbreak.
Victoria has recorded four new COVID-19 cases from more than 50,000 tests. No new cases were recorded in NSW, WA and the ACT.
All new cases have been linked to the outbreak, bringing the state's total number of cases to 30. The number of primary and secondary contacts has now passed 15,000 people.
Mr Hunt said this Victorian outbreak was different to the last one, with better procedures in place and significant progress in aged care vaccinations.
"There is, however, real hope with the results overnight," Mr Hunt said on Friday.
"The level of testing, the level of contact tracing and the fact that the case numbers were limited. I think the situation in our observation is very different to a year ago."
More than 40,000 people were vaccinated in Victoria on the day before the lockdown, taking the national daily figure on vaccine doses administered to a record 124,871.
Australia has now passed the milestone of 4 million COVID-19 doses administered, at 4,031,539. But, there are 20 million Australian adults who require two doses to be fully vaccinated. Currently, less than 500,000 Australians or just 2 per cent of the population have had two doses.
While a milestone, and with the current boost from the Victorian breakout, the rate of COVID-19 vaccination in Australia remains too slow to reach a successful nationwide vaccination program by the end of the year.
Mr Hunt has been scrutinised in the media for overstating Australia's progress by spruiking the number of total doses over Australia's figure for full vaccination.
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Chief medical officer Paul Kelly stood up on Friday to back the minister. He insisted he 12-week interval between first and second AstraZeneca jabs would show up in statistics soon.
"Can I really reiterate as a chief medical officer of Australia that first doses are important," Professor Kelly said.
"Zero doses give you no protection. One dose gives you a very good protection quite quickly.
"From next week, we will start to see those second doses really rolling out in relation to AstraZeneca and those numbers of fully vaccinated people will rapidly rise over the coming weeks."
In Victoria, it was still a case of wait and see.
"We have to see how the days ahead play out," Victoria's chief health officer Brett Sutton said.
"It is not over yet. We can get 10 [cases] tomorrow, 20 tomorrow. We absolutely have to recognise that there are thousands and thousands of close contacts still to go through the incubation period, who could become symptomatic."
While Victorians are stepping up to get tested and vaccinated, the systems in place are stretching beyond capacity. After the state government broadened vaccine eligibility to include anyone aged between 40 and 49, long lines formed at vaccination hubs and the vaccine booking system crashed.
There was no hint on Friday of any major overhaul coming to Australia's vaccine strategy.
Prof Kelly has written to the advisory group on immunisations, ATAGI, to ask if more COVID-19 vaccine doses can be released.
"We will see what they have to say," he said on Friday.
ATAGI next meets on Wednesday. Lowering the recommended age for AstraZeneca below 50 - given the concern in Victoria - was a small possibility, Prof Kelly said.
The main vaccine focus of prioritising of vulnerable populations over young people who were more likely to be out spreading the virus has not changed. Prof Kelly said the plan remained to "decrease death and severe illness first".
As for possible incentives to get Australians vaccinated, Mr Hunt ruled out a lottery idea.
"The strongest reason is to avoid a lottery and to avoid the lottery of Covid and avoid the lottery of death," he said.
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