To support the timely and safe delivery of COVID vaccines to populations in the region, Australia is providing vaccines to our neighbours across the Indo-Pacific. This is providing certainty of supply to our regional neighbours to help protect communities and bring the pandemic to an end.
In addition to sharing Australian doses, Australia is partnering with UNICEF to procure and deliver additional COVID-19 vaccine doses for partner countries. UNICEF’s role as the vaccine procurement agent for the United Nations and the COVAX Facility made them the ideal partner for this initiative.
This partnership is a key aspect of Australia’s $523 million regional vaccine initiative. But we are not just supplying vaccine doses, we are working through partners to ensure partner governments are prepared to store and administer vaccines safely into arms.
This includes training of healthcare workers; communications campaigns to support social and behavioural immunisation insights; addressing vaccine safety issues, including Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI) surveillance and the purchase of cold storage equipment such as fridges.