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Australia to receive 500,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses in swop deal with Singapore

2021-08-31 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-亚洲原网页

CANBERRA/SINGAPORE - Australia will receive 500,000 doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine from Singapore this week, with Canberra returning the same quantity later in the year, the leaders of both nations said on Tuesday (Aug 31).

The vaccine swop deal will allow Australia, which is struggling to contain a surge in Covid-19 cases, to accelerate its vaccination programme.

"We need to vaccinate the whole country and we need for those doses to go from one end of the country to the other and for them to be taken up," Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

"This will greatly assist the national vaccination programme as it brings in two important age groups into the programme — the 16- to 29-year-olds, which have already begun this week — and, of course, the 12- to 15-year-olds," Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported him as saying.

Mr Morrison thanked Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for helping facilitate the swop.

Mr Lee, in a Facebook post on Tuesday, said: "Our two countries enjoy a warm and long-standing friendship, and this is another example of our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership."

"Glad to support their efforts to get Australians vaccinated as soon as possible. Countries must be united in the battle to quell the pandemic, so that we can all move into the new normal. Singapore is ready to do our bit."

Singapore's Covid-19 vaccination rate reached the milestone of 80 per cent of the population having received two doses as at Sunday (Aug 29).

In a statement, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said: "This arrangement will enable both countries to support each other in optimising our respective schedules for vaccinating our populations against Covid-19."

MFA noted the benefit Australia providing the same quantity of vaccines back to Singapore at a later date, "after we have drawn down on our existing supplies vaccinating the rest of our population, including new incoming long-term pass holders as we open up our society and economy".

"These returned doses would come in more useful for Singapore then, potentially as booster doses for specific segments of our population that could benefit from such boosting."

"Throughout the pandemic, both countries have been sharing best practices in our respective efforts to combat Covid-19, and have been working together to keep markets open and supply chains functioning globally," said the MFA.

With just under 28 per cent of Australia’s population fully vaccinated, compared with 80 per cent in Singapore, several states and territories have had to implement strict lockdowns as cases soared, hitting businesses and the domestic economy.

Capital city Canberra on Tuesday extended its hard lockdown by a further two weeks and Victoria, the country’s second most populous state, is expected to follow suit.

Canberra has been in lockdown for three weeks after a spate of cases believed to have spread from New South Wales, the epicentre of Australia’s Covid-19 outbreak.