Health experts are calling for the states and territories to be given more control over the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, as Australia falls well behind schedule.

In January, Prime Minister Scott Morrison set a target of four million vaccine doses administered by the end of March, but as of yesterday, fewer than 700,000 had been given.

WA Chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Sean Stevens, said the target is achievable, but more GP clinics must be made available to hand out the jabs.

“If we can have timely communication from the federal health department, if we can have on-time delivery of the vaccine then I think we can get there,” he told 6PR’s Gareth Parker.

“At the moment there is only 1000 practices across Australia that have been given the ok to vaccinate, that is going to ramp up to 4600 by the end of this month.”

He said GPs have the capacity to be able to vaccinate on mass, they just need the vaccines.

“If we look last year at the peak of the influenza vaccination season, general practitioners were able to rollout 10,000 vaccines a week in WA.

“We are here, we are ready, we are willing, we are able, all we need is the vaccine.”

Click play to hear the full interview. 

(Photo: iStock by Getty Images.)