Australia has secured another 50 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, bringing the country’s total purchase to more than 134 million doses, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced in a press release on Thursday.
Forty million of the new doses will be supplied by Novavax, while Pfizer and BioNTech will supply 10 million doses, he said.
Australia has now secured access to a total of four Covid-19 vaccines, and the total amount of investment has reached more than AU$3.2 billion (US$2.3 billion), he said.
Prime Minister Morrison said investing in different vaccines will be crucial to ensure the country gains early access to a vaccine.
“We aren’t putting all our eggs in one basket and we will continue to pursue further vaccines should our medical experts recommend them,” he added.
Supply deals between countries and vaccine makers have so far favored developed countries and territories including Australia, the UK, US, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Switzerland and Israel, as well as the European Union.
Developing countries including India, Bangladesh, China, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico have also secured vaccine deals, but the Serum Institute of India (SII) recently predicted it will take four to five years for the vaccine to reach everyone around the globe.