Austria To Donate Extra 1.5Mln AstraZeneca Doses To Struggling Nations

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.