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.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to