Dr Nick Coatsworth on vaccines: 'We've still got a lot of work to do to convince Australians'

Sydney is now a month into its latest lockdown and daily COVID-19 cases numbers are not yet getting better.

Former Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth said while restrictions are having some effect, they're not helping as much as we might like at this stage.

"When COVID gets into certain communities in Australia, communities that sort of are the engine rooms - the factories of our big cities - it can be extraordinarily difficult to flatten that curve again," he told A Current Affair host Deborah Knight.

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Dr Coatsworth said most Sydneysiders have been making efforts to not spread the virus, which is why it hasn't spread as quickly as it could have.

With essential locations - such as supermarkets and pharmacies - regularly listed as exposure sites, Dr Coatsworth said it's important people continue with hand hygiene, mask-wearing, and social distancing when getting essentials.

"The big weapon that we didn't have last year, of course, which we have now is an effective vaccine," Dr Coatsworth said.

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"It does actually reduce the transmission rate as well … it doesn't eliminate it, but it does reduce it."

He said rather than speculating how long lockdowns might continue, it's more important to take each day as it comes to ensure the mental health of Sydneysiders.

"It's just as likely that we may see a plateau or a decrease or the numbers might go up. They were bouncing around for several weeks in Victoria before we saw a clear trend," Dr Coatsworth said.

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"Concentrate on doing the right thing in Sydney and those numbers will come down."

With 10 deaths from the latest cluster, including four deaths in the past two days - one of those being a woman in her 30s who had no underlying health issues - the doctor wants to make it clear how important it is for everyone to get vaccinated.

"It's far from just a flu … COVID-19 is not influenza," he said.

"Once you get vaccinated, it becomes a lot less of a risk to yourself and your family."

Dr Coatsworth said after the weekend's lockdown protests there is now a risk that COVID-19 numbers will increase.

"This Delta variant is very transmissible," Dr Coatsworth said.

"It's entirely possible that we'll see cases out of that and that would be as tragic for those people who were there to get COVID-19 when they could have avoided it so easily by not protesting."

Dr Coatsworth, who has been one of the faces of the vaccine rollout, said he's not sure the campaign has translated into more people being vaccinated even with around 11.1 million Australians currently receiving the jab.

He believes there's a lot of work to go in convincing Australians to get vaccinated.

The doctor said while just 16 per cent of the population is vaccinated, he's happy seeing the numbers around 175,000 to 180,000 getting vaccinated each day and thinks they may go up.

He didn't want to make too many predictions but believes with more Pfizer supply and ATAGI's changed aged recommendations for AstraZeneca, the rates will continue rising.

"The AstraZeneca vaccine has always been licensed as a safe vaccine for people over the age of 18. It's simply that ATAGI put in age recommendations, which they always said that they would revisit in the event of an outbreak and here we are, and they've been revisited," the doctor said.

Dr Coatsworth said the most immediate effect on COVID-19 numbers is movement and restrictions.

He said the first dose of either vaccine will also offer protection within 21 days and the second dose will provide full protection from severe hospitalisation and death from the Delta variant.

With NSW crying out for help with vaccine supplies, Dr Coatsworth said it would be great to see states helping each other.

"I think it would be a wonderful symbol for Australians to see states donating part of their Pfizer campaign, Pfizer supply to the New South Wales vaccination campaign," he said.