Singapore to send 500,000 vaccine doses to Australia in swap deal

Canberra

AUSTRALIA will receive 500,000 doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine from Singapore this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday, after his government agreed to a swap deal in a bid to curtail surging coronavirus infections.

The agreement, which will see Australia return the same amount of Pfizer vaccine doses to Singapore in December, will allow Canberra to accelerate its vaccination programme as daily cases near record levels for the country.

"That means there are 500,000 doses extra that will happen in September that otherwise would have had to wait for several months from now, accelerating our vaccination programme at this critical time as we walk towards those 70 per cent and 80 per cent targets," said Mr Morrison.

The 500,000 doses that Singapore is sending will come from its existing supplies and the country has enough to meet its current needs, said Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.

The ministry added that the returned doses in December would potentially be used as booster shots for "specific segments" of Singapore's population that could benefit from it.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong hailed the swap deal as another example of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between both countries.

"Glad to support their efforts to get Australians vaccinated as soon as possible," said Mr Lee. "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."

While Australia had managed to successfully contain the coronavirus with a system of strict lockdowns and quarantine, a slow vaccination roll-out has made the country vulnerable to the highly infectious Delta variant.

With just under 28 per cent of Australia's population fully vaccinated, compared with 80 per cent in Singapore, several states and territories have had to implement strict lockdowns as cases soared, hitting businesses and the domestic economy.

Australia's capital Canberra on Tuesday extended its hard lockdown by a further two weeks, and Victoria, the country's second most populous state, is expected to soon follow suit.

Canberra has been in lockdown for three weeks after a spate of cases believed to have spread from New South Wales, the epicentre of Australia's Covid-19 outbreak.

"We are bending the curve down and are getting on top of the outbreak. However, it is a slow process and it will take more time," said Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister Andrew Barr.

On Tuesday, Canberra reported 13 new cases in the past 24 hours. New South Wales reported 1,164 new infections, down slightly from a record 1,290 cases the day prior.

Victoria, which has been in lockdown for five weeks, on Tuesday reported 76 new locally acquired coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, up marginally from 73 cases reported the previous day.

State Premier Dan Andrews said too many people remain unvaccinated to significantly ease restrictions, but that Victoria would outline a plan on Wednesday to reduce curbs as vaccination levels rise.

Australia has recorded nearly 54,000 Covid-19 cases and 1,006 deaths since the start of the pandemic, still lower than the caseload and death toll in most comparable nations. REUTERS