The European Union Denies Blocking 3.1 Million Doses Of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 Vaccine To Australia

AstraZeneca Vaccine. (Wikimedia Commons / Agencia Brasilia)

JAKARTA - The European Union on Tuesday denied that it had blocked the delivery of 3.1 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to Australia, in line with increased surveillance of vaccine exports to address shortages.

"We cannot confirm a new decision to block the export of vaccines to Australia or to other countries", a European Commission spokesman said at a press conference, as reported by Reuters on Wednesday, July 7.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Tuesday that unrealized shipments of the vaccine affected the country's vaccination program.

"At the beginning of January, we are getting ready to get 3.1 million vaccines. The vaccines are not supplied to Australia", Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

An Australian Government source said the European Union had blocked 3.1 million doses of the vaccine. And, there is little hope of getting the remaining 400 thousand doses that have been promised on time.

"So far they have blocked 3.1 million doses. We have not given up hope, but we have stopped counting them in our expected supply", the source said, adding that they had only received 300.000 doses and another 400.000 doses were scheduled to arrive at the end of April.

These conditions underscore AstraZeneca's shortcomings in meeting doses for the European Union, impacting Australia's vaccination program that is 80 percent behind schedule.

A spokesman for the European Commission said it had rejected only one of 491 requests for exports of the COVID-19 vaccine since increasing export transparency in late January.

However, there are seven export requests that are currently in the review process. Thus, the delivery process is postponed until a decision is made.

He declined to say whether the new shipments to Australia were among those under review. But an EU official said no export requests to Australia were being reviewed.

"The only rejected requests out of the nearly 500 received so far were delivery of 250.000 doses to Australia in March. From January 30 to March 24, the European Union exported 1 million doses to Australia", the European Commission said in a press release.

Previously, the European Union has repeatedly said AstraZeneca may not be allowed to export vaccines outside the EU, before fulfilling its contractual obligations.

This has led AstraZeneca to refrain from submitting multiple export requests for vaccines. AstraZeneca did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Tuesday.

With inoculation launches running far behind Britain and the United States, the EU tightened its controls on vaccine exports last month, giving greater scope to block shipments.

Australia until Tuesday only confirmed 250.000 doses of AstraZeneca from the European Union, which Canberra said would not delay its scheduled inoculation.

An EU official said it was not responsible for AstraZeneca's failure to enforce commitments to other countries. Meanwhile, of the 300 million doses of vaccine that AstraZeneca promised to the European Union by the end of June, it is possible that only 100 million doses will have been realized.

Australia, which has a lower number of positive cases and deaths from COVID-19 than any other country, has started an overtime vaccination program slowly.

However, from the target of the vaccination program for 4 million people by the end of March, only 670 thousand people have been realized. The AstraZeneca vaccine from Europe was originally the wheel of the vaccination program, completing the 50 million doses of vaccine produced domestically.