CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – Australia began its COVID-19 inoculation program on Monday, days after neighboring New Zealand, both governments decided that their pandemic experiences did not require rapid monitoring of vaccine deployments that they occurred in many parts of the world.
Other countries in the Asia-Pacific region that have treated the pandemic relatively well have recently begun or are about to be vaccinated, including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore.
Catherine Bennett, an epidemiologist at Deakin University in Australia, said countries that do not face a virus crisis benefit from taking their time and learning from countries that have taken emergency vaccination measures such as United States.
“We now have data on vaccinated pregnant women. Natural accidents, like the wrong dosage, happen in a real-world deployment, “Bennett said.” All of these things are really valuable ideas. “
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison made his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Sunday in a demonstration of confidence in the product. Australia prioritizes public confidence in COVID-19 vaccines before delivery speed.
Healthcare and border control workers, as well as residents and nursing home workers, began receiving the Pfizer vaccine Monday at centers across the country. Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt will get the AstraZeneca vaccine when it is available in a few weeks.
The vast majority of cases in Australia are infected travelers abroad who are detected during mandatory hotel quarantines for 14 days. Australia has recorded 909 coronavirus deaths.
New Zealand began inoculations last week after receiving its first batch of Pfizer vaccine.
The nation of five million has successfully eliminated the spread of the virus and the first people to receive the shots are border workers and their families. This is a different priority group from most countries and the idea is to prevent the virus from spreading from travelers who arrive infected. Then health and essential workers, along with vulnerable seniors, will be vaccinated.
However, the deployment of a program to vaccinate the wider population in New Zealand will not begin until the second half of the year, behind many other countries.
In Australia, some infectious disease and ethics experts at the Australian National University have accused the government of hoarding vaccines and argued that the government should send leftover supplies to countries in desperate need.
Elsewhere in Asia, Thailand, which has only suffered 83 deaths from the virus, has not yet begun vaccinating. He will receive the first 200,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine on Wednesday. This is part of the Thai government’s plan that has so far secured 2 million doses of Sinovac and 61 million doses of AstraZeneca.
The government has a policy of providing free vaccines to all Thais and aims to inject half the population this year. The government said it expects to start vaccinations a few days after the first batch of vaccines arrives.
Vietnam, which has registered 35 deaths, announced last week that it will receive 5 million doses of vaccine by the end of February and expects to start inoculations as early as March. Five million people, mostly front-line workers, will be given the first shots.
Cambodia, which has yet to report any deaths from the virus, received the first shipment of 600,000 doses of vaccine from China on February 7, part of the million doses given by Beijing. The country began the vaccination program on February 10, starting with the children of Prime Minister Hun Sen, government ministers and officials of a state hospital.
In Singapore, which has reported 29 deaths from viruses, some 250,000 residents, including health workers and other front-line workers, had been vaccinated since last week, according to health officials. The goal is to get one million more people to receive the first dose of vaccine in early April.
Laos, which has also not reported any deaths, received 300,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine on 8 February. A Ministry of Health official said he expects 20% of Lao’s population, or 1.6 million people, to be vaccinated within the year.