Austria To Donate Extra 1.5Mln AstraZeneca Doses To Struggling Nations

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published November 10, 2021 | 10:24 PM

Austria will donate its surplus of 1.5 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses to European and Central Asian countries to help with their COVID-19 vaccination drives, the foreign minister said Wednesday

VIENNA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th November, 2021) Austria will donate its surplus of 1.5 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses to European and Central Asian countries to help with their COVID-19 vaccination drives, the foreign minister said Wednesday.

This is on top of the 2.6 million doses that Austria has so far sent to non-EU neighbors and other third countries in an attempt to boost global coronavirus response, Michael Linhart told a news conference.

"It is a fact that Austria has more than enough vaccines... Austria's unused vaccine stock is of as much help in the fight against the pandemic as swim vests kept onshore during a shipwreck," the minister said.

Linhart spoke after a trip to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, where 12% to 20% of those populations have received a shot. The three countries will get a combined 450,000 AstraZeneca doses, with a further 50,000 going to Vietnam and the rest to Armenia, Moldova and Balkan nations.