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Austria will provide vaccination doses to the neighboring country of the Czech Republic, which has been particularly affected by the coronavirus.
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) wants to support the Czech Republic bilaterally after the EU dispute over the distribution of corona vaccines. In coordination with Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens), Austria “will bilaterally support the Czech Republic with 30,000 doses of vaccines,” Kurz announced on Friday, according to the Federal Chancellery. It is seen “it is very positive that we have also heard from other European countries the willingness to do so.”
Redistribution plan rejected
The Czech Republic, along with Austria and Slovenia, had rejected the original plan to redistribute 10 million cans from Biontech / Pfizer in the EU in favor of the newcomers and ultimately did not receive around 140,000 cans as part of a deal from solidarity. Kurz criticized this: “The Czech Republic has been particularly affected with numerous deaths and still high levels of infection, but it remains the only country that has not received any additional doses of vaccine in regards to the European distribution of the vaccine. We consider not supporting the Czech Republic in particular as unfair and lacking in solidarity. “
Help for the Czech Republic
Kurz emphasized that the problem in the Czech Republic could have been solved with a few hundred thousand cans. “In a first proposal in the Board of Directors, the Czech Republic should have received around 800,000 doses of vaccination, but nothing came out.” If vaccination is not sufficiently advanced in some countries, the result is bad for everyone, “because we can only defeat the pandemic together. And we do not want to accept that one of our neighboring countries is left behind here.” You can see in eastern Austria, but also eastern Germany, that the virus does not stop at borders, Kurz said.
