Singapore will give Australia 500,000 doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine from this week, with Canberra returning the same quantity later in the year, the leaders of both nations said on Tuesday.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said “We need to vaccinate the whole country and we need for those doses to go from one end of the country to the other and for them to be taken up,”.
The vaccine swop deal will allow Australia, which is struggling to contain a surge in Covid-19 cases, to accelerate its vaccination programme.
“This will greatly assist the national vaccination programme as it brings in two important age groups into the programme — the 16- to 29-year-olds, which have already begun this week — and, of course, the 12- to 15-year-olds,” Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported him as saying.
Mr Morrison thanked Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for helping facilitate the swop.
Mr Lee, in a Facebook post on Tuesday, said: “Our two countries enjoy a warm and long-standing friendship, and this is another example of our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.”
“Glad to support their efforts to get Australians vaccinated as soon as possible. Countries must be united in the battle to quell the pandemic, so that we can all move into the new normal. Singapore is ready to do our bit.”
It is to be noted that Singapore’s Covid-19 vaccination rate reached the milestone of 80 per cent of the population having received two doses as at last Sunday.
MFA noted the benefit Australia providing the same quantity of vaccines back to Singapore at a later date, “after we have drawn down on our existing supplies vaccinating the rest of our population, including new incoming long-term pass holders as we open up our society and economy”.
