Biggest floods in decades hampering Australia's vaccine roll-out

Sydney

AUSTRALIA'S roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine has been hampered by torrential rain and flooding that has seen residents along the New South Wales coast - including parts of Sydney - evacuated.

The downpour is expected to cause disruptions to freight and logistics services across the state with vaccine deliveries likely to be impacted, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said on Sky News' Sunday Agenda show.

The government has faced criticism for poor organisation and a slower-than-expected start to its vaccine roll-out.

As part of the roll-out, general practitioners are due to begin inoculating patients from Monday, with about six million Australians eligible. About 200,000 doses will be delivered to GPs in the coming week, deputy chief medical officer Michael Kidd said at a briefing on Sunday. Some deliveries had been delayed because of the flooding, Dr Kidd said.

The drenching comes about a year after Australia experienced catastrophic bushfires that burned more than six million acres, and wiped out communities.

Western Sydney and the NSW Mid North coast are bearing the brunt of the relentless downpour that has caused the Warragamba Dam, Sydney's primary source of water, to overflow for the first time in five years, and caused severe damage to property and roads. Residents in the city's north-west and those in low-lying areas were ordered by emergency services to evacuate.

Another 4,000 people could be asked to evacuate in parts of western Sydney, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Sunday. The state is in the middle of an "extreme weather event", she said, urging residents to be on high alert and be on standby to evacuate.

"We are now envisaging a one-in-50-years event," Ms Berejiklian said about western Sydney. "Yesterday, we were envisaging a one-in-20-years event. The rain we are expected to see in the next few days is beyond anyone's expectations."

Persistent rain is expected to continue at least until the middle of the week as it moves across the state, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

Insurers have received storm-related claims over the last four days. However, it was still too early to estimate the damage as many communities remained isolated, the Insurance Council of Australia said in a statement on Sunday.

"We can't underestimate the ferocity of the extreme weather conditions. We've gone from extreme drought, extreme bushfires to now extreme floods," Ms Berejiklian said. BLOOMBERG