Australia’s Covid vaccine challenges have been ‘overcome’, Scott Morrison says

PM's assertion comes as national death toll since pandemic began surpasses 1,000 and states seek more Pfizer amid Delta outbreak

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The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has declared the government has overcome" the challenges of the national vaccine program, despite the states crying out for more mRNA vaccine supplies to curb the Delta outbreak tearing through NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

The prime minister's assertion came as the country marked the grim milestone of the first Indigenous death from a Covid-19 case, in western NSW, and as the national death toll surpassed 1,000 since the pandemic began in early 2020.