Premiers’ war of words continues as Gladys Berejiklian hits back at Dan Andrews’ claims on vaccines

Premiers’ war of words continues as Gladys Berejiklian hits back at Dan Andrews’ claims that NSW were ahead of the vaccination race because they took ALL the jabs

• NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian hits back at claims by her Victorian counterpart 
• She said NSW made the early decision to vaccinate as many people as possible
• Extra supply was needed for vaccination hubs and a more extensive GP network
• Yesterday Daniel Andrews said he didn’t sign up to a plan to ‘vaccinate Sydney;

By Michael Pickering For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 03:01 BST, 8 September 2021 | Updated: 03:14 BST, 8 September 2021

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has hit back at claims by her Victorian counterpart that her state has been given preferential treatment on Covid vaccines.

At Wednesday’s Covid update, Ms Berejiklian said NSW had made an early decision to vaccinate its way out of the city’s crippling Delta outbreak, requiring a greater supply of available vaccines.  

‘I remember being highly criticised for suggesting that … vaccination was the way out of this outbreak and we have to live with COVID,’ NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said

‘I remember being highly criticised for suggesting that … vaccination was the way out of this outbreak and we have to live with COVID,’ she said. 

‘So we made a very hearty effort in New South Wales early on, even before the Delta outbreak, to vaccinate as much of our population as possible.’ 

Ms Berejlklian said the state’s extensive GP network and early embrace of mass vaccination centres had created the demand for greater supply of vaccines. 

‘We had a strategy for some months about vaccinating our population as quickly as possible and certainly, it didn’t take long within the first few days of the Delta outbreak for us to know once we had been in lockdown, that this was different to anything we’d experienced. 

‘We had to learn to live with it and that vaccine was the only way out. 

‘Other states obviously haven’t had to go through what we have, and they’re obviously in a bit of catch-up mode.

A nurse administers a person with Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at Qudos Bank Arena vaccination clinic in Sydney

The premier said NSW had pushed both vaccines to combat the outbreak in Greater Sydney and was now seeing a high take-up of both Pfizer and Astra-Zeneca.

Mr Andrews yesterday claimed that his state had missed out on 340,000 vaccine doses as a result of preferential treatment of NSW by the federal government.

‘I signed up to a national plan to vaccinate our nation, not a national plan to vaccinate Sydney,’ Mr Andrews said.

‘We have seen hundreds of thousands of vaccines that should have come and now should be in the arms of Victorians going into Sydney, into GP practices and into NSW.’ 

Ms Berejiklian said despite the complaints of Mr Andrews, she expected Victoria’s population to reach 80 percent double dose vaccination ‘not too far behind NSW’ as the country looked to reopen domestic borders for Christmas travel.

‘Hopefully other states will see the way that NSW has managed to get through this, and then feel more confident about their own situation.

‘I’m confident that there’ll be – there’s already been – a shift in thinking.’ 

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