Australian health minister announces extra COVID-19 vaccines for Victoria state

CANBERRA, June 7 — Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt has announced extra coronavirus vaccines for the state of Victoria amid its ongoing lockdown.
The second-most populous state, also the hardest-hit state by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, recently has registered around 80 cases linked to the current outbreak.
Hunt on Sunday afternoon said an extra 230,000 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine and 100,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be directed to Victoria over the coming weeks.
“That’s recognition of the very strong work being done here in Victoria and the strong demand,” he said. “We want to see other states and territories have that same degree of public support and confidence.”
Victoria was thrust into its fourth coronavirus lockdown late in May after a cluster of COVID-19 cases linked to hotel quarantine was found in Melbourne.
Strict restrictions remain in place for the 5 million residents of greater Melbourne but are expected to ease later this week.
Hunt’s announcement came as Australia’s vaccine program, which was plagued by supply issues early, hit a milestone with 5 million doses administered.
As of Sunday afternoon, there had been 30,175 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, and the numbers of local and overseas acquired cases in the last 24 hours were two and 13 respectively, according to the latest figures updated on Sunday evening from the Australian Government Department of Health.
On Monday morning, the Victorian Department of Health reported 11 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases, all linked to existing outbreaks. (Xinhua)