Singapore and Australia have agreed to a dose sharing arrangement of COVID-19 vaccines. This arrangement will enable both countries to support each other in optimising our respective schedules for vaccinating our populations against COVID-19.
As Singapore has made good progress in our national vaccination programme and possesses sufficient supplies to meet our immediate needs, we will provide around 500,000 doses of our existing stocks of Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA-based vaccine for COVID-19 to Australia. This will help Australia accelerate its vaccination programme amidst its current increase in cases caused by the Delta variant.
In exchange, Australia will provide the same quantity of vaccines back to Singapore at a later date, after we have drawn down on our existing supplies vaccinating the rest of our population, including new incoming long-term pass holders as we open up our society and economy. These returned doses would come in more useful for Singapore then, potentially as booster doses for specific segments of our population that could benefit from such boosting.
This dose sharing arrangement is yet another example of the enduring Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Singapore and Australia. Throughout the pandemic, both countries have been sharing best practices in our respective efforts to combat COVID-19, and have been working together to keep markets open and supply chains functioning globally.
Singapore is also grateful to Pfizer and BioNTech for assisting to facilitate the dose sharing arrangement.
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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SINGAPORE
31 AUGUST 2021