Sydney, Nov. 5, (dpa/GNA) – The Australian government has secured two more agreements with coronavirus vaccine makers, which will give the country access to over 134 million doses overall, the prime minister announced Thursday.
Under the new agreements, Novavax will supply 40 million vaccine doses and Pfizer-BioNTech will provide 10 million doses, Scott Morrison said.
If “proven safe and effective” the vaccines are expected to be available in Australia from early to mid 2021.
The deals come in addition to two previous agreements – one with the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, and a local candidate from the University of Queensland with biotech company CSL.
The new agreements take the country’s Covid-19 vaccine investment to over 3.2 billion dollars (2.3 billion US dollars).
“We aren’t putting all our eggs in one basket and we will continue to pursue further vaccines should our medical experts recommend them,” Morrison said in a statement.
“There are no guarantees that these vaccines will prove successful, however our Strategy puts Australia at the front of the queue, if our medical experts give the vaccines the green light.”
Australia’s Covid-19 vaccine portfolio now has two protein vaccines and one messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) type vaccine.
“Protein vaccines are the most established technology,” Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy told reporters in Sydney.
He described the mRNA vaccine as “a very exciting new technology.”
“We have diversified our strategy and we have the capacity now to start vaccinating the Australian population in the first quarter of next year which is a terrific outcome and gives us a very, very strong position internationally in access to vaccines,” Murphy said.
According to Australian Associated Press news agency, the Novavax vaccine is made in the United States and the Czech Republic, and the Pfizer-BioNTech candidate will be made in the US, Belgium and Germany.
The government is working on an initial rollout plan for early 2021, which will make the vaccines free but not mandatory.
Australia had also previously signed on to COVAX, an international initiative to distribute Covid-19 vaccines fairly across the globe.
“Our agreements allow Australia to donate to partners in the Pacific and South-East Asia, should these vaccines prove safe and effective, and units are available above domestic needs,” the government said in a statement.
Australia, a nation of around 25 million people, has recorded just over 27,600 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic – significantly fewer than most developed countries.
The country has taken a strict lockdown approach, alongside a system of rigorous testing and tracing to contain the virus.
Australia closed its borders to international visitors in late March, and has had restrictions on movement in place across its states and territories.
On October 16, arrivals from New Zealand were allowed to enter the country quarantine-free under a one-way “travel bubble” agreement.
However, the government has indicated that travel between Europe and the United States may not be an option until 2022.
Over the weekend, the country recorded zero new daily coronavirus cases for the first time since June.
On Thursday, Victoria – the state that had been crippled by a second-wave of the pandemic – recorded its sixth consecutive “double doughnut day” without any new coronavirus deaths or new cases.
The most populous state of New South Wales on Thursday recorded no new locally acquired cases of Covid-19.
The country’s pandemic death toll stands at 907, of which 819 were from Victoria.
GNA