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New Zealand will buy enough Covid-19 vaccines to cover its Pacific island neighbors, including Samoa and Tonga.
The government announced on Thursday that it has signed two additional Covid-19 vaccine pre-purchase agreements, allowing it to begin vaccinating the entire population of New Zealand from mid-2021.
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said New Zealand would also buy enough vaccines for the countries of the Kingdom of New Zealand, Tokelau, Niue and the Cook Islands, as well as neighboring Tonga, Samoa and Tuvalu, if those countries want to accept. the offer.
The Government had allocated $ 75 million in development assistance funds to help distribute the vaccine in these countries.
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Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta says New Zealand will support Pacific Island neighbors to implement Covid-19 vaccines.
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“Pacific countries have worked hard to keep Covid-19 out, or to end it, and New Zealand is committed to supporting them in this,” Mahuta said in a statement.
But its success has been hard-earned. A safe and effective vaccine will be key to the economic and social recovery of the region ”.
Approximately $ 10 million of the $ 75 million assistance funding will go to the global COVAX facility, which works to provide equitable access vaccines to countries around the world.
Countries affected by coviditis around the world are urgently vaccinating their populations, as the virus spreads and deaths increase.
The UK has vaccinated 130,000 people since launching the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine a week ago, as the country locks in again for the winter to prevent the virus from spreading.
Deaths from Covid-19 in the United States have dwarfed 300,000 this week, as the first healthcare workers received the Pfizer vaccine after the Food and Drug Administration gave it an urgent green light.
New Zealand has no Covid-19 cases within the community currently, and 43 cases within quarantine facilities at the border.
The two new deals announced Thursday are for two-dose vaccines: one for 7.6 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which will cover 3.8 million people; and another for 10.72 million doses of a Novovax vaccine, enough for 5.36 million people.
BROOK SABIN / Things
Niue is one of the countries to which New Zealand will offer the Covid-19 vaccine.
The launch of any vaccine would be subject to the approval of clinical trials and subject to the approval of the regulator, Medsafe. The government said Medsafe had been prepared to provide a streamlined approval process.
“We are moving as fast as we can, but we also want to make sure the vaccine is safe for New Zealanders,” Ardern said.
“Never before has the whole world sought to vaccinate the entire population at the same time. This will be a sustained deployment for months, not weeks, but our pre-purchase agreements mean that New Zealand is well positioned to move forward as soon as it is proven safe to do so. “
