Australia is to provide 8000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Papua New Guinea as the island nation struggles with an outbreak of coronavirus.
Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister James Marape says infection rates of Covid-19 on the island are staggering. Photo: AFP
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the doses would be sent immediately, along with other critical care equipment.
Yesterday, Papua New Guinea warned its infection rate from new tests was approaching one in every three or four people.
Cases continued to climb today, with 82 new cases of the coronavirus announced.
It brings the country's total number of reported infections to 2351, with 26 recorded deaths.
The country's fragile healthcare system is under huge strain.
During a news conference today, Morrison said the doses - from Australia's own stocks - would be used to vaccinate health workers.
He also said he had lodged a request with AstraZeneca and the European Union to access one million of the country's contracted doses, "not for Australia, but for PNG, a developing country in desperate need of these vaccines".
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison Photo: Kiyoshi Ota / POOL / AFP
It was unclear when these vaccines would be delivered.
Italy this month blocked 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia on the basis that they were more urgently needed in Europe.
Infectious diseases expert Sanjaya Senanayake, from the Australian National University, told the BBC Australia's 8000 doses would prove helpful, even though it could only protect 4000 people.
"You can't possibly achieve herd immunity this way, but if they're used for healthcare workers and maybe any excess reserved for vulnerable groups, it'll still be helpful," he said.
Papua New Guinea's first batch of vaccines were set to arrive in April as part of the global Covax inoculation sharing scheme, but experts warned this would be too late.
More than half of the nation's 2269 cases so far have been reported in the past month alone, and hospital wards in the capital Port Moresby are nearing capacity.
"The number is quite staggering, if we don't do corrective response to this, our health system will be clogged," Prime Minister James Marape told journalists yesterday.
He has urged citizens to "remain in your provinces, remain in your villages, remain in your districts".
"It's broken loose... we need to contain it," he said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Military officers escort the hearse carrying the coffin of the former Papua New Guinea's prime minister Michael Somare during his funeral ceremony at Parliament House in Port Moresby. Photo: AFP
There are also concerns that large gatherings marking the death of former Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare could have contributed to the spread. Experts warned that more planned events could see more cases.
Testing has been an issue for the island nation. As of 10 March, only 50,000 tests had been carried out in a country with a population of nine million.
Australian officials said almost half of the results from areas tested in the past week had come back positive, including many healthcare workers.
"These are all signs that there is a major epidemic in the community," Australia's chief health officer Paul Kelly said.
The Australian state of Queensland is helping Papua New Guinea with testing. Authorities in the state said they had recorded 250 positive results out of 500 tests conducted.
There is also concern that the outbreak could spread to Australia, with Morrison announcing the cancellation of charter flights and outbound travel to Papua New Guinea for the next two weeks.
He said that since Monday, Australian authorities had already found 32 cases from PNG in Queensland.
- BBC