Four million doses of the Pfizer jab will be sent from the UK to Australia as part of a Covid-19 vaccine deal.
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison announced the move in a press conference from Canberra, just days after his country secured 500,000 about-to-expire Pfizer doses from Singapore.
“The plane is on the tarmac now. It will be leaving tomorrow,” Mr Morrison said.
4 million extra Pfizer vaccine doses will begin arriving in Australia in days after we secured a swap deal with the UK.
This means millions of Australians will now be able to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated sooner as we follow our National Plan to safely reopen. pic.twitter.com/KWkHSh1I9k— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) September 3, 2021
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“Those doses will be coming over the course of the next few weeks, which will see us double the Pfizer doses that we have during September.
“This means from Downing Street to Down Under, we are doubling down on what the Pfizer doses are here in Australia this month.”
Australia has one of the slowest vaccine rollouts among wealthy countries, with just 36.4 per cent of people over the age of 16 fully vaccinated, according to the Australian Immunisation Register.
The country’s two most populous states, Victoria and New South Wales, are in lockdown and counting on getting their residents vaccinated to contain the outbreak of the Delta variant which began in Sydney in mid-June.
The deal comes hours after British prime minister Boris Johnson said the UK needs to “go faster” with the vaccination of 16 to 17-year-olds, despite a “strong” uptake within the age group.
