Australia’s support for vaccine rollout in the Pacific and Timor-Leste

Australia’s support for the COVID-19 vaccine roll out in the Pacific and Timor-Leste has provided on May 5 an initial delivery of 20,000 Australian-manufactured vaccines from the national stocks to Timor-Leste. The country has also sent further much-needed medical supplies to support Timor-Leste’s COVID-19 response.

This builds on the more than 56 tonnes of humanitarian, medical and PPE supplies delivered to Timor-Leste last month. Six Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT) specialists are currently in Dili working to support local health authorities in their COVID-19 response.

Also, 10,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses will be delivered to the partners in Fiji this week, building on earlier initial vaccine support to Papua New Guinea.

Australia will procure vaccine stocks, under a partnership agreement with UNICEF, of up to 6 million COVID-19 doses for the Pacific and Timor-Leste in 2021. This commitment is in addition to Australia’s $80 million contributions to the multilateral COVAX Facility’s Advance Market Commitment for developing countries.

More than 275,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses have already been delivered by COVAX to Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Tuvalu, and Nauru.

All vaccines provided by Australia meet internationally accepted standards of safety and efficacy.

The health security of near neighbors is critical to Australia’s health security and vaccines are critical to the region’s economic recovery. The country is working closely with other partners, such as New Zealand, France, the United States, and India to ensure comprehensive vaccination coverage across the Pacific.