Australia on Wednesday said the European Union had requested that the application for export permits for the AstraZeneca PLC Covid-19 vaccine be withdrawn, increasing its dispute with Europe over access to pre-purchased vaccines, Reuters reported.
The Australian government has blamed the delay of 3.1 million AstraZeneca doses, which were due to be delivered by the end of March, for the backlog in its own vaccination program.
The European Union on Tuesday denied that the shipment of the vaccine to Australia had been blocked, saying it was not responsible for AstraZeneca’s failure to meet its obligations to other countries.
The dispute highlights the major shortcomings of the AstraZeneca shot across the EU and the impact of any restrictions on vaccine exports to countries with pre-ordered doses.
“The EC is arguing semantically, but at the end of the day we just want what Australians have ordered so we can get more vaccines,” the Australian government said in a statement on Wednesday, referring to the EU executive, the European Commission.
Canberra said the EC was requesting Australia to withdraw export permits, and that AstraZeneca had told Canberra that it could not obtain an export license from Europe to ship the pre-purchased doses to Australia.
“The EC was absolutely clear in their public and private statements that no further doses (the AstraZeneca vaccine) should be released until their own orders have been fulfilled,” Canberra said.
At the end of February, Australia initially received 300,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, which he said was the last time. It also introduced doses of Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine.
The AstraZeneca vaccine that arrived from Europe would support the early stages of Australia’s vaccine management and 50 million shots of the vaccine produced locally by CSL Ltd. will be manufactured, supplement.
Australia has recorded just 909 Covid-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic, a small number compared to most countries.
But the vaccination program is behind the plan, with only about 670,000 people vaccinated by the end of March at an initial target of 4 million.
AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.