The Italian government has blocked the shipments of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine delivery to Australia. The decision affects 250,000 doses of the vaccine, which produced at AstraZeneca’s facilities in Italy.
Italy is the first EU country to use the bloc’s new rules to suspend exports if a vaccine company fails to fulfill its obligations to the EU.
Australia has stated that the loss of the “shipment” will not affect distribution.
However, he urged the European Commission, which is rumored to be supporting Italy’s move, to reconsider the decision.
AstraZeneca is in the process of delivering only 40% of its contracted supplies to member countries in the first three months of this year. Furthermore, he gave an example of production problems due to congestion.
In January, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte called AstraZeneca and Pfizer’s delays in vaccine supply “unacceptable” and accused the company of breaching their contracts.
The EU has heavily criticized for the slow pace of its vaccination program.
As part of the EU vaccination program set up in June last year. The bloc negotiates the purchase of vaccines on behalf of member countries.
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There was no official comment on Italy’s move by the EU or AstraZeneca on blocking of AstraZeneca vaccine delivery to Australia.
Australia launched a vaccination program with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine last week by Friday.
What did Italy say?
The Italian government contacted the European Commission last week to say it intended to block the broadcast.
In a statement on Thursday, the State Department explained the move, saying it received the permit application on February 24.
It said previous requests got the green light because they included a number of samples for the study. But the latter, which is much larger for more than 250,000 doses, has been turned down.
He explained the move, saying that Australia was not on the list of “at-risk” countries, that there was a constant shortage of vaccines in the EU and Italy, and that the number of doses given as compared to the amounts Italy and Italy received. That the UE is good overall.
What does the Australia say?
“Australia has raised the issue with the European Commission through multiple channels, and in particular we have asked the European Commission to review this decision,” said Health Minister Greg Hunt.
Australia has announced it has received 300,000 cans and plans to start local production next month.
