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SYDNEY (REUTERS) – Australia expects to receive its first batches of a potential Covid-19 vaccine in January, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday (Sept. 7), as the number of new daily infections at the virus hotspot the country fell to a 10-week low.
Morrison said his government has reached an agreement with CSL Ltd to manufacture two vaccines: one developed by rival AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, and another developed in CSL’s own laboratories with the University of Queensland.
“Australia needs some hope,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
“Today, we take another important step to protect the health of Australians against the coronavirus pandemic.”
Health Minister Greg Hunt said scientists leading the development of both vaccines have warned that recent evidence suggests that both will offer “multi-year protection.”
Morrison said CSL is expected to deliver 3.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is currently undergoing advanced stage clinical trials in Britain, Brazil and South Africa, in January and February next year.
AstraZeneca candidate AZD1222 is considered a pioneer in a global race to provide an effective vaccine to fight the virus.
Australia had announced in August that it planned to purchase AZD1222, along with an agreement of intent from CSL to manufacture it. That plan was called into question when CSL announced shortly after that it would prioritize manufacturing its own vaccine.
Morrison’s announcement on Monday that Australia would also buy the drug CSL if the trials were successful appeared to be the culmination of an agreement for both vaccines to cross the line.
The CSL vaccine is due to begin second-stage clinical trials in late 2020, which means the earliest it could hit the market would be mid-2021.
If both vaccines pass clinical trials, Australia will spend A $ 1.7 billion (S $ 1.69 billion) for a total of nearly 85 million doses, Morrison said.
The deal came as Australia’s state of Victoria said 41 cases of Covid-19 have been detected in the past 24 hours, the lowest increase in a single day since June 26.
Australia’s second-most populous state has been the epicenter of a second wave and now accounts for about 75 percent of the country’s 26,320 cases and 90 percent of its 762 deaths.
The southeastern state on Sunday extended a lockdown on its capital Melbourne until Sept. 28, as daily infection rates had declined more slowly than expected.
EMPLOYMENT LOSSES
The extension of the lockdown in Melbourne is expected to lead to further job losses. The national Treasury Department said the original six-week shutdown had already cost Victoria about 250,000 jobs, or half the total recorded by the state since the pandemic began.
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced on Monday that Australia will extend its temporary insolvency and bankruptcy protection rules until the end of this year, unless creditors cannot issue bankruptcy notices to companies for debts less than AU $ 20,000.
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