Australia said on Wednesday that the European Union had asked it to withdraw applications for export permits for Covid-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca PLC, and ended the dispute with Europe over access to purchased inoculations. previously, Reuters reports.
The Australian government has accused the delay of 3.1 million doses of AstraZeneca, scheduled for the end of March, for being left behind in its own vaccination program.
On Tuesday, the European Union denied blocking the shipments of the vaccine to Australia and said it was not responsible for AstraZeneca failing to meet commitments to other countries.
The dispute highlights the massive shortcomings of AstraZeneca firing across the EU and the impact of vaccine export edges in countries with pre-ordered doses.
“The EC argues the semantics, but in the end what we want is what Australians have ordered so we can get more gun vaccines,” the Australian government said in a statement on Wednesday referring to the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission .
Canberra said the EC had applied to Australia for the withdrawal of export permit applications and that AstraZeneca had told Canberra that it had not been able to obtain an export license from Europe to ship the purchased doses. previously in Australia.
“The EC has been absolutely clear in its public and private statements that no more doses of (the AstraZeneca vaccine) will be released until its own orders have been complied with,” Canberra said.
Australia received an initial shipment of 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in late February, which it said was the last to be received. He has also imported doses of the vaccine from Pfizer Inc.
The AstraZeneca vaccine coming from Europe was to underpin the early stages of Australia’s vaccine capture, complementing 50 million shots of the vaccine to be produced locally by CSL Ltd.
Australia has recorded only 909 deaths from Covid-19 since the pandemic began, a small number compared to most countries.
But its inoculation program is running late, with only about 670,000 people vaccinated against an initial target of 4 million by the end of March.
AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.