Australia is considering diverting COVID-19 inoculations from its vaccination program to Papua New Guinea (PNG), where the coronavirus is threatening to unleash a humanitarian disaster, a government source said yesterday.
PNG is due to get 588,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine by June under the COVAX initiative to help poorer nations, but doubts have arisen about those supplies given new restrictions imposed in nations producing the vaccines as the coronavirus spreads.
The EU is implementing tougher vaccine export controls and has yet to respond to an Australian request that it release 1 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine that has been contracted to go to Australia to PNG instead, the source said.
Photo: AFP
India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India to meet domestic demand, which will almost certainly delay deliveries to PNG.
There is growing concern that PNG, an island nation of about 10 million people, many living in impoverished, isolated communities, cannot afford to wait.
“We have a humanitarian disaster unfolding in our backyard,” said the source, who is familiar with the thinking of the Australian government on the issue.
The source declined to be identified as he is not authorized to talk to the media.
Australia is still lobbying the EU for the 1 million doses, but considering other options, the source said.
“No decision has yet been made, but the government is considering sending vaccines,” said the source, who did not comment on the quantity of doses being discussed.
An Australian government spokesman declined to comment.
PNG, which was administered by Australia before its independence, has recorded 4,109 COVID-19 cases.
However, Australia says that data vastly underestimates the extent of the crisis as PNG does not do mass testing.
PNG’s hospitals have reported that as many as 80 percent of tests are coming back positive and Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape has said that the coronavirus has “broken loose.”
The only vaccines PNG has received are just over 8,000 doses that Australia sent for health workers.
“The Australian government is absolutely right to be pressing the EU on this matter, but the situation is too urgent to wait,” said Marc Purcell, chief executive of the Australian Council for International Development, which represents aid agencies.
The Australian government now faces the politically sensitive question of whether to send PNG doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine at the early stages of its own vaccination campaign.
Biotech company CSL is due to supply Australia with 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that it has begun producing in Australia to help inoculate the entire population of about 26 million by the end of the year.
Australia has largely managed to get to grips with the pandemic through lockdowns, social distancing, contact tracing and border controls. It has reported 29,239 cases and 909 deaths.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS