The four million Pfizer doses are expected to arrive this month.
After news that Australia will be receiving half a million Pfizer doses from Singapore, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has today announced that Australia is also set to secure four million Pfizer vaccine doses from the UK thanks to a major swap deal.
With this swap deal, Australia will have to return the favour to both countries by December with the same number of doses expected to be repaid by the end of the year.
Speaking at a press conference, the PM said that the doses are expected to arrive this month.
“There are four million reasons to be hopeful today,” he said.
“Because the government has been able to secure, with the government of the United Kingdom, a Pfizer swap deal which will see four million doses of Pfizer come to Australia this month.”
The first batch of doses is expected to arrive over the weekend with the PM stating that the plane is “on the tarmac now.”
“Those doses will be coming over the course of the next few weeks, which will see us double the Pfizer doses that we have during September.”
The deal follows the country’s increasingly worsening situation with the Delta strain with NSW recording 1431 cases today and Victoria recording 208.
The PM expressed his gratitude to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“There’s been some very late-night discussions and negotiations and legal work taking place, especially over the course of the past week, to bring this to conclusion, but it has been a real commitment to Australia from Prime Minister Johnson,” he said.
4 million extra Pfizer vaccine doses will begin arriving in Australia in days after we secured a swap deal with the UK.
This means millions of Australians will now be able to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated sooner as we follow our National Plan to safely reopen. pic.twitter.com/KWkHSh1I9k
— Scott Morrison (@ScoMo30) September 3, 2021
Where will the Pfizer doses go?
The four million Pfizer doses from the UK and the 500,000 expected to arrive from Singapore will be distributed on a per capita basis.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, NSW is expected to receive 1,381,344 additional doses over what the state was expecting initially.
Victoria will be getting an extra 1,130,905 doses followed by Queensland with 875,653 expected doses. The ACT will receive 95,141 jabs.
MORE INFO:
All residents aged 16-39 are now eligible for the Pfizer vaccine.
To register for a vaccine, see here.