Australia slams Italy for blocking COVID-19 vaccine shipment using new EU law

Australia on Thursday slammed the European Union for blocking the shipment of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine. According to Sky News, Australian Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said the move shows the desperation of other countries as compared to Australia. Birmingham added that it is "unsurprising some countries would tear up the rule book", referring to Italy, who decided to invoke the EU's new law to block the shipment of vaccine doses to Australia. 

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According to reports, Italy blocked about 2,50,000 doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine from leaving the country. The blockade was later approved by the European Union. This is the first instance when a country has used the new EU law to prevent vaccine doses from being exported. The law was introduced after AstraZeneca said it would not be able to fulfill its contractual obligation with the EU due to production issues. However, the bloc believed that AstraZeneca was supplying its share of vaccine doses to other countries, hence, the law.

Read: EU, Italy Stop AstraZeneca Vaccine Exports To Australia

'Will not affect ongoing vaccination drive' 

Australia has said the decision will not affect its ongoing COVID-19 vaccination effort. Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said the blockade has affected just one shipment from one country, which anyhow would not have been used until coming weeks. Hunt said that Australia is working to ramp up its domestic production of COVID-19 vaccine and soon the demands will be met internally. 

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Australia has agreed to 53.8 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, of which 50 million doses will be manufactured locally by CSL Ltd. Australia began the COVID-19 vaccination programme last month and since then it has administered more than 50,000 shots. Australia's COVID-19 handling has been comparatively better than its peers in the West. The country has reported a little over 29,000 cases and 909 deaths to date. 

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