Australia boosts vaccine aid

By James Robertson 28 July 2021, 11:00AM

The Australian Government has provided a further 30,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Samoa, as fully vaccinated numbers top 20,000.

A statement issued by the Australian High Commission to Samoa stated that Australia is proud to partner and revealed the arrival of a 30,000 Australian-manufactured AstraZeneca doses on Monday.

The recent delivery to Samoa is part of Australia’s commitment to share up to 15 million COVID-19 vaccine doses with our closest partners in the Pacific and Timor-Leste by mid-2022.

The Australian High Commissioner to Australia, Emily Luck stated in the statement that in late April this year, they marked the historic moment when Samoa joined the global roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines shipped across the world through the COVAX facility, a multilateral initiative aimed at achieving equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines

“We have delivered a total of 50,000 doses of Australian-manufactured AstraZeneca to Samoa over recent weeks,” Mrs. Luck said.

“Vaccinations are now being recorded in the Tamanu application, an Australian-developed, patient-level electronic medical record used by Samoa’s Ministry of Health as an immunisation registry.

“We are pleased to have supported Samoa to be the first country in the Pacific to use Tamanu for its national roll-out of COVID-19 vaccinations. This tracking is essential to ensure no one is left behind.”

Mrs. Luck emphasisied that Australia’s holistic support also includes improvements to waste management and sanitation in health facilities and provision of access to Australian technical advice on vaccine safety and research.

“This week’s delivery to Samoa, and others in the Pacific, brings the total number of vaccines shared from Australia across the Pacific and Timor-Leste to over 895,000,” she said.

“As a partner, neighbour and friend, Australia is committed to supporting regional resilience and laying the foundations for our region’s and Samoa’s economic recovery.”

According to recent figures issued by Samoa’s Ministry of Health (M.O.H) on Tuesday morning, there have been 22,639 people in the country that have been fully vaccinated, which is 18.6 per cent of the eligible population vaccinated.

Of the 22,639 people that have been fully vaccinated, 11,859 are males while 10,780 are females.

There are now 61,774 people in the country that have received the first dose of the vaccine which is 50.7 per cent of the eligible population vaccinated.

Of the 61,774 people that have received the first dose of the vaccine, 34,184 are males while 27,590 are females.

By James Robertson 28 July 2021, 11:00AM

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