Australia's prime minister has apologised for the country's glacial vaccine rollout, as Sydney recorded a record jump in new coronavirus infections.
Scott Morrison is under fierce public pressure to improve a vaccination rate currently languishing around 11%, among the lowest rate of any rich nation.
After months of boasting about his "gold standard" pandemic response and insisting vaccine rollout was "not a race", Mr Morrison bowed to critics. "I'm sorry that we haven't been able to achieve the marks that we had hoped for at the beginning of this year.
Of course I am," he said. "I take responsibility for the vaccination programme. I also take responsibility for the challenges we've had.