CANBERRA (AUSTRALIA) – A dangerous outbreak of coronavirus has been detected at Papua New Guinea (PNG) that Australian authorities fear could spread to other parts of the region. The country has, therefore, asked the European Union if they could release 1 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that Australia needed the vaccines to contain a surge in coronavirus cases in the Pacific island nation
Commenting on the same, Morrisons said, “We’ve contacted them. We’ve paid for them and we want to see those vaccines come here so we can support our nearest neighbour, PNG, to deal with their urgent needs in our region. They’re our family, they’re our friends. They’re our neighbours. They’re our partners… This is in Australia’s interests, and is in our region’s interests.”
However, in the wake of EU recently blocking an Australia-bound shipment of the doses. the request is expected to increase the existing tensions between Canberra and Brussels.
Prime Minister also added that Australia will donate 8,000 locally produced COVID-19 vaccines to PNG as an immediate response to the outbreak, and would make a million doses available as soon as they arrived from Europe.