Australia Expects To Get First Vaccine Batches In January
Government leaders in Australia and the United Kingdom talk about an early 2021 timeline in which those nations should receive AstraZeneca鈥檚 vaccine, viewed as a front runner in the global race.
Australia expects to receive its first batches of a potential COVID-19 vaccine in January, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday, as the number of new daily infections in the country鈥檚 virus hotspot fell to a 10-week low. Morrison said his government has struck a deal with CSL Ltd to manufacture two vaccines - one developed by rival AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and another developed in CSL鈥檚 own labs with the University of Queensland. (Packham, 9/6)
U.K. health secretary Matt Hancock on Monday said a COVID-19 vaccine would 鈥渕ost likely鈥 be available in the first few months of 2021, as the country recorded a sharp rise in daily coronavirus cases. Speaking on national news radio station LBC, Hancock said the government has already started production of the U.K. government鈥檚 initial order of 30 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine, which is being developed by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca AZN, -1.07% in collaboration with the University of Oxford. (Saigol, 9/8)
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday that under agreements his government had struck, Australians could have 3.8 million doses of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine by January or February next year. The first doses would be imported but the rest of 84.8 million shots for Australia and its regional neighbours would be produced in Melbourne. However, when that claim was put to the British Health Secretary on London talkback radio hours later, Matt Hancock maintained the UK would be ahead of Australia. (Bourke, 9/8)
