The UK and Australia will share COVID-19 vaccine doses to benefit
each other’s life-saving vaccine rollout programmes, the
government has announced today.
The UK will send 4 million Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines to Australia
to rapidly enhance their vaccination programme, with the first
batch of 292,000 doses due to be shipped shortly. Australia will
return the same overall volume of doses before the end of the
year.
This arrangement is mutually beneficial and will ensure these
Pfizer/BioNTech doses – which are not immediately required in the
UK – are used to support international vaccination efforts.
Sharing doses will mean Australia has access to vaccines they can
put to use in their domestic campaign immediately and will enable
the UK to better align timings of our own supply of vaccines with
our future need - including for any booster programme or
expansion of vaccines to teenagers, pending final advice from the
Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
Thanks to the early work of the Vaccine Taskforce, the UK has
ensured sufficient vaccine supplies for its domestic rollout and
supported the global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by
improving access to vaccines.
Nearly 9 in 10 over 16s in the UK have received their first dose
and over three-quarters have had both jabs. The government is
confident in its vaccine supply and there will be no impact on
the UK’s ongoing COVID-19 vaccine rollout or any future booster
programmes.
This agreement comes as the UK announces the latest batch of its
Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered through
COVAX – the international scheme designed to ensure vaccines are
available for poorer countries around the world. In total, over 9
million COVID-19 vaccines from the UK have now been sent to
developing nations across Africa and Asia.
The COVAX doses are part of the 100 million vaccines the Prime
Minister pledged the UK would share over the following year at
June’s G7 in Cornwall, with 30 million due to be sent by the end
of the year.
More than 592,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were
delivered to Nigeria on 26 August, and COVAX is scheduled to
transport more than a million doses to Pakistan, 499,000 doses to
Ethiopia and 105,000 doses to Niger.
Health and Social Care Secretary,
said:
“Vaccines have built a strong wall of defence in the UK and we
want to support nations around the world in recovering from
COVID-19 and improving access to vaccines.
“Our agreement with Australia will share doses at the optimum
time to bolster both our countries’ vaccination programmes.
“By working with international partners to coordinate the rollout
of life-saving vaccines, we will protect more people from this
awful virus and save lives.”
Last month, the UK delivered 3 million vaccines through COVAX to
11 African countries including Angola, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal,
Uganda and Zambia – as well as sending 4 million directly to
countries in need including Antigua and Barbuda, Belize,
Cambodia, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya,
Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, Thailand and Vietnam.
Foreign Secretary, said:
“The UK is donating vaccines to help protect more than 2
million of the most vulnerable people across Pakistan, Nigeria,
Ethiopia and Niger, as part of the 100 million doses we’ve
pledged to share with the world.
“The UK continues to lead the global response to the pandemic
because nobody is safe until everyone is safe.”
At least 80 million of the 100 million doses the UK will share
will go to COVAX, with the rest going to countries directly. The
donations will help meet the pledge that G7 leaders made to
vaccinate the world.
Notes to editors:
- The doses going to Australia are not part of the commitment
to send 100 million vaccines overseas.
- The UK has led the international response to COVID-19,
including through kick-starting efforts to establish COVAX in
2020 and providing £548 million to fund vaccines for lower income
countries through the scheme. It has so far delivered more than
215 million vaccine doses to over 138 countries and territories,
including in 84 lower-middle income countries. COVAX aims to
deliver 1.8 billion vaccines to lower-income countries by early
2022.
