Australia on Wednesday (March 17th) asked AstraZeneca and the European Union for emergency access to one million doses of the vaccine it has purchased in order to provide them to Papua New Guinea, facing an outbreak of Covid-19.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he wanted to use these doses, which Australia ordered for itself and paid for, to help Papua New Guinea, located just north of Australia, to fight against the coronavirus.

"We are making a formal request to AstraZeneca and the European authorities to have access to a million doses of our order from AstraZeneca, not for Australia, but for Papua New Guinea, a developing country in desperate need. of these vaccines, ”Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

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Italy blocks the export of doses of AstraZeneca to Australia

"We signed a contract for these doses, we paid for them. And we want to see these vaccines get here so that we can support our closest neighbor, Papua New Guinea, to meet [their vaccine needs]," he said.

The Australian move comes after Italy blocked a delivery of AstraZeneca vaccines produced on European soil and destined for Australia in early March.

Rome justified this measure by citing "the persistent shortage of vaccines and delays in supply from AstraZeneca" in the EU and Italy.

Brussels did not object to the blockade decided by Italy and said other EU countries could do the same.

"All these facts are signs that there is a major epidemic"

Papua New Guinea, one of the poorest countries in the Pacific, has officially recorded more than 1,000 new cases of Covid-19 in 8 million inhabitants since March 1, a doubling of the total number of infections since the disease arrived in this country a year ago.

But the slowness of the testing process raises concerns that the virus is spreading much faster in the population.

And officials have warned that the country's fragile health system is struggling to cope with the epidemic.

Australia's top medical official, Paul Kelly, said hospitals in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, were detecting the virus in half of newly admitted patients.

"Half of the women who come [to these hospitals] because they are pregnant are positive. We are seeing a large number of frontline health workers in Papua New Guinea arriving with Covid-19," Paul said. Kelly.

"All of these facts are signs that there is a major epidemic [in the country]."

In addition to announcing Australia's approach to AstraZeneca and the EU, Scott Morrison said Australia already had a plan to support Papua New Guinea, its former colony, including l 'dispatch of medical teams, personal protective equipment and 8,000 doses of vaccine to immunize health workers.

The virus is largely under control in Australia, which has recorded just over 29,000 cases since the start of the epidemic.

Lately, outbreaks have been rare, which has made it possible to relax health restrictions across the country.

But officials in Queensland, a state in northern Australia, told AFP that about half of the Covid patients hospitalized in that state were from Papua New Guinea.

With AFP

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