Australia has purchased slightly more than a million doses of BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine from Poland to help fight an alarming spike in coronavirus infections, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Sunday.
The doses were due to arrive in Australia on Sunday night, Morrison said at a news conference, and 530,000 of them were to be directed to 12 local government areas in Sydney, which are among the hardest hit by the recent outbreak.
Sydney’s home state, New South Wales, declared a snap lockdown on Saturday afternoon in response to the surge in infections, with authorities announcing a steep increase in fines — up to AU$5,000 or roughly €3,100 — for anyone caught violating stay-at-home rules.
Poland has been looking to sell as many as 4 million doses, even as it trails many other EU countries in the effort to vaccinate its own population. Roughly 56 percent of Polish residents over 18 years of age are fully vaccinated, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and just under 58 percent have received at least one dose. In Spain and France, by comparison, more than 84 percent have received at least one dose.
At his news conference, Morrison said that Australia had been in negotiations with Warsaw for several weeks, and he personally thanked Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Poland had previously said that most of its surplus doses would go to Ukraine, Georgia and countries in the Balkans, but Morrison said the severity of the outbreak in Sydney, Australia’s largest city, had convinced Warsaw to help.
“These doses are all from the Pfizer plant in Belgium, where all of our other Pfizer doses are coming from,” Morrison said. “And I particularly want to thank Prime Minister Morawiecki, who I’ve had numerous discussions with over these last few weeks and been in regular contact. I want to thank him personally and his government for their support of Australia’s COVID-19 response during this very challenging time.”
Asked by a reporter about the cost of the doses, Morrison declined to reveal the price Australia paid Poland, saying only that it was a “straightforward transaction.â€Â
Morrison’s government has faced harsh criticism over Australia’s slow vaccine rollout. Current statistics show just over 20 percent of the country is fully vaccinated, with 38 percent partially vaccinated.
Canberra has previously suggested that the EU was partially at fault for the slow campaign, having accused Brussels in April of deterring AstraZeneca from exporting doses to the country and blocking shipments of 3.1 million doses of that vaccine. The EU denied that, but had previously blocked a shipment to Australia of 250,000 AstraZeneca doses using export restrictions that were developed as a result of its own dispute with the pharmaceutical company over slow deliveries.
Morrison on Sunday said Australia’s vaccine program was gaining traction, partly thanks to Poland’s help.
“There is hope,” he said. “Indeed there’s more than a million doses of hope on its way. Earlier today, a plane left Dubai, having left Warsaw last night.”
Morrison said the doses from Poland would be targeted to the 20 to 39 age group, which has been identified as “peak transmitters” in the current outbreak.
Poland has previously sought to be a player in international vaccine diplomacy, stepping in last spring, for example, with 3,500 doses help inoculate personnel at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
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